Sports gambling laws and regulations

Sports gambling laws are different from place to place. In the US, sports gambling is considered illegal in most states save a few like Nevada, Montana etc. The legitimacy and general acceptance of sports gambling is highly regulated in several European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans must 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 enthusiasts to increase their interest in a sporting event thus being a big benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.

There are many sites that happen to be reputable that do not allow US residents to bet through them although with the advent of the internet and offshore gambling sites it truly is getting tough to govern the sports gambling actions of Americans. For many years the United States argued against the internet gambling legalities by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to halt sports gambling activities between states by making use of wire containing devices and the telephone. Considering that the internet had not been yet invented at that time, legal experts today question whether regulations actually pertained to the internet services or otherwise.

The Justice Department of the US however claimed that 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 raise the US port security. Attached with this was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibited US citizens from utilization of electronic fund transfer or checks, credit cards etc to fund any internet betting activity.

What was important was the reality that the act dealt just with the funding of internet gambling accounts rather than the actual 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 person but focused only on the restriction of specific transactions which were financial and concerning 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 web sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction and not the actual 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 control 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 gambling on the net) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled in their favor and though the US appealed the initial ruling was upheld on lots of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million and the right to penalize the US copyright and trademark laws.