Sports gambling laws are different from country to country. In the United States, sports gambling is considered illegal in most states save a few like Nevada, Montana etc. The legality and general acceptance of sports betting is extremely regulated in numerous European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans need to know how to bet tax free – great info at GertGambell.net. “Sports gambling” is considered by legalized sports gambling proponents as being a sports hobby for sports fans to enhance their interest in a sporting event thus being a great benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are many sites that are reputable that do not allow US residents to bet through them but with the appearance of the internet and offshore gambling sites it is getting more difficult to govern the sports gambling activities of Americans. For quite a while the United States argued against the online gambling legalities by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to stop sports gambling activities between states by making use of wire containing devices along with the telephone. Considering that the internet had not been yet invented at that time, legal experts today question whether the law actually pertained to the net services or otherwise.
The Justice Department of America however claimed the Wire Act did relate to all forms of online or internet gambling. In 2006, The congress wrote the SAFE Port Act and passed it to increase the United States port security. Attached to it was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibited US citizens from usage of electronic fund transfer or checks, credit cards etc to finance any internet gambling activity. arbitrage sports betting sure bets
What was important was the reality that the act dealt just with the funding of internet gambling accounts and not the actual placing of the bet. Thus an Internet gambling law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that the bill that was passed didn’t have impact on the gambling activity of the person but focused only on the restriction of specific transactions that were financial and relating to the banks and internet gambling sites. Thus the bill failed to make internet gambling illegal but it made funding ones bet or wager on the internet sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction instead of the actual act of betting by way of the individual.
Rep Barney Frank then introduced in 2007, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act as a way to legalize internet sports gambling and at the same time Rep.es McDermott introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act to regulate betting sites on the web and collect tax on all bets made.
The country of Antigua and Barbuda in 2003 filed a complaint against the US with the World Trade Organization the US (based on their sports gambling laws and ban on betting on the internet) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled for their favor and though the United States appealed the initial ruling was upheld on plenty of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million and the right to penalize the US copyright and trademark laws.