Sports betting laws are different from country to country. In the US, sports gambling is considered illegal in most states save some 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 a sports hobby for sports fans to enhance their fascination with a sporting event thus being a big benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are plenty of sites that happen to be respectable that do not allow US citizens to bet through them although with the appearance of the internet and offshore gambling sites it is getting more difficult to govern the sports gambling actions of Americans. For many years the US argued up against the internet gambling legal issues by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to stop sports gambling activities between the states by using wire containing devices and the telephone. Because the internet had not been yet invented during those times, legal experts today question whether the law actually pertained to the internet services or not.
The Justice Department of the US however claimed that the Wire Act did refer to all types of online or internet gambling. In 2006, The congress wrote the SAFE Port Act and passed it to raise the US port security. Attached with it was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibited US residents from usage of electronic fund transfer or checks, credit cards etc to fund any internet betting activity.
What was important was the fact that the act dealt only with the funding of internet gambling accounts and not the specific placing of the bet. Thus an online betting law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that the bill that was passed had no impact on the gambling activity of the individual but focused only on the restriction of specific transactions which were financial and concerning the banks and internet gambling sites. Thus the bill did not make internet gambling illegal but it made funding ones bet or wager on the internet sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction and not the specific act of betting by way of the individual.
Rep Barney Frank then introduced in 2007, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act in order to legalize internet sports gambling and at the same time frame Rep.es McDermott introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act to regulate betting sites online and collect tax on all bets made.
The nation 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 gambling on the net) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled in their favor and though the United States appealed the original ruling was upheld on plenty of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million as well as the right to penalize the United States copyright and trademark laws.