By TheNuts - May 21, 2021
Legal USA Online Sports Betting Today
Since posting this story in February, five more states have legalized sports betting. As you may remember, in May 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1992 federal ban on sports betting violated states’ rights. So, where does legal online sports betting in the USA stand today?
Online sports betting is now legal and live (except where noted) in Arizona, Arkansas (legal but not yet available), Colorado, Delaware ((legal but not yet available ), Georgia (legal but not yet available), Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan (as of late Jan), Mississippi ((legal but not yet available ), Montana (legal but not yet available ), Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico ((legal but not yet available), New York (upstate NY only), North Carolina ((legal but not yet available), Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island (legal but not yet available ), South Dakota,Tennessee, Virginia (as of late Jan), Washington (legal but not yet available), West Virginia and Wyoming.
Four big states are talking about it: California, Florida, Ohio and Texas. Only Ohio is expected to legalize it in 2021, presumably in time for the next season of NFL Football.
So what about the remaining states? Legal scholars think most of the holdouts will eventually legalize it, mainly to keep from losing revenue to bordering states. Virginia is a classic example. They dragged their feet on legalizing a state lottery and saw all that revenue go to DC, Maryland and West Virginia instead. Virginia finally put it to the voters in a 1987 referendum, where it was ratified by over 56% of the electorate.
If you live in Utah, and want to make a sports wager legally, you might consider moving. Utah’s opposition to gambling will be tough to overcome, as their anti-gambling attitude is written into their State Constitution!
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