Interactive Map: Sports Betting in the U.S.

Although sports betting is now legal in many states, far fewer have realistically set up provisions or given out licenses to authorize sports betting online and mobile sportsbooks, but more are on the way. US Gambling Laws. Gambling is legal in some form across most of the USA. State-specific gambling laws regulate or restrict different types of gaming at the local level. The legislation varies around land-based casinos, charitable events, sports betting, lottery, keno, bingo, and skill games, depending on where you reside. No longer the only state to permit a wide variety of legal sports betting, Nevada is a mature market that has existed for decades. Given its long history in successfully offering regulated sports. USA Legal Sports Betting Sites Online. Legal online sports betting through legal online gambling by state can be best achieved through Bovada. As the name suggests, Bovada is in the business of giving players access to one of the best sportsbooks around. Regardless of the sports betting laws in your state, you have the option to bet on sports at international sportsbooks. These online betting operations bring sports betting to every sports bettor in the country and allow for full-service sporting betting to be accessible at the palm of sports bettors' hands.

AGA’s interactive sports betting map provides state-level detail on the types of wagering allowed, key regulatory details, legal retail sportsbooks and online/mobile, and more.

Sports betting activity
- Live, Legal* (19 States + DC)
- Legal - Not Yet Operational (6 States)
- Active or Pre-Filed Legislation (5 States)
Inactive sports betting
- No Legislation in 2020 (6 States)
- Dead Legislation in 2020 (14 States)

Legal Landscape as of December 7, 2020

“Live, Legal” denotes states where single-game sports betting is legally offered to consumers through retail and/or online sportsbooks. States classified as “Legal – Not Yet Operational” have authorized sports betting, but have yet to launch. “Active or Pre-Filed Legislation” denotes jurisdictions where bills to legalize single-game sports betting have been pre-filed/introduced in the state legislature or where a voter referendum is scheduled. Sports betting provisions, revenue, and location data are sourced from state regulatory agencies.

Sports betting activity
- Live, Legal* (19 States + DC)
- Legal - Not Yet Operational (6 States)
- Active or Pre-Filed Legislation (5 States)
Inactive sports betting
- No Legislation in 2020 (6 States)
- Dead Legislation in 2020 (14 States)

Legal Landscape as of December 7, 2020

For years, Americans who wanted to wager on sports in the country had only one choice – travel to Nevada to place a bet at some of the state’s famous sportsbooks in Las Vegas, Reno or other locations.

Nevada was one of only four states – including Oregon, Delaware and Montana – where you could legally place a sports wager in the country once President George H.W. Bush in 1992 signed into law the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). Some forms of sports gambling were legal in Delaware, but they were limited at best.

What states is online sports gambling legally

With the advent of the Internet, American bettors had more “under the radar” options available to them with offshore sportsbooks where they could place wagers online. But even that became much more difficult, if not impossible, when the government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which prevented payments from being used for online gambling.

Of course, there have always been other “under the radar” options such as placing a sports wager with a local bookie, but for all intents and purposes, Nevada was the only legal option for sports betting in the country.

That all changed on May 14, 2018, though, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared PASPA unconstitutional by a 6-3 vote, paving the way for states across the country to make their own rules and regulations regarding sports wagering in their states.

New Jersey led the way in the challenge to PASPA, and the Garden State was not surprisingly the first to push ahead with the most extensive sports wagering laws, governing both in-person and online wagering rivaling that of Nevada. Other states have followed suit, and still others are working to get laws passed in their states to regulate the practice.

This is What’s Happening Right Now with Sports Betting Online in the U.S.

The yellow states are the four states where sports gambling was grandfathered in before PASPA was passed in 1992. They are Nevada, Montana, Oregon and Delaware.
The green states are the ones that legalized sports betting through legislation after the overturn of PASPA. They are New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New York and Arkansas.
The blue states have either already introduced sports betting legislation that hasn’t passed yet, or are predicted to introduce legislation in 2019. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, Washington, Arizona, California and Hawaii.

Sports betting has been a hot topic around the U.S. for a number of years now, ever since New Jersey began building its case against PASPA. Since SCOTUS ruled the law unconstitutional, states around the country have addressed the topic.

Thanks to the decision by the Supreme Court on May 14, 2018, eight states that were prohibited from offering sports betting from 1992 to 2018 have established sports betting legislation to legalize the practice, and one other (Delaware) expanded its sports betting legislation. Two of those states – New York and Arkansas – have laws passed, but they do not currently offer sports betting at any establishments yet. That is expected to happen sometime in 2019.

The following states now offering some form of legal sports betting:

Delaware: launched June 5
New Jersey: Launched June 14
Mississippi: Launched Aug. 1
West Virginia: Launched Aug. 30
Pennsylvania: Launched Nov. 16
Rhode Island: Launched Nov. 26

Delaware was actually the first state to expand its sports betting legislation following the overturn of PASPA. The state already had sports betting in place, but bettors could only place parlay bets, and not single-game wagers. That changed when Delaware updated its laws to allow for single-game betting on a number of sports starting June 5.

New Jersey was the next state in line, launching its land-based sportsbook offerings on June 14, and following that up with legal online sports wagering on Aug. 1.

Mississippi was the first state to launch tribal sports betting, but that was done along with a state law that regulated sports betting throughout the state. In New Mexico, sports betting is illegal in all parts of the state except for at the Santa Ana Star Casino & Hote

What States Is Online Sports Gambling Legal