Is It Legal To Bet Sports Online?

In the United States, gamblers that use the Internet to connect to casinos, rather than walk into a government-regulated tribal casino or Las Vegas hotspot, have to feel like the government is after them. In 2011, a ton of online poker sites were seized, player accounts frozen, and hosts actually arrested for charges ranging from money laundering to illegal gambling. This comes just a few years after Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which changed the landscape of online sports betting in the US forever.

After the UIGEA bill went into effect, Americans lost the majority of access to financial deposits. Bank drafts and payments from credit or debit cards were no longer a possibility. Though there are still sports books open to US bettors, the question of these site's legality is best left answered with a giant question mark.