The Myth of Illegal Online Sports Betting

The Myth of Illegal Online Sports Betting

By Marcus Camby
Legal US Online Casino News

Even Lawyers are confused by United States Gaming Rules. There is no federal law against online gambling in the U.S. But the misuse of the powers of the Department of Justice has combined with a word-of-mouth campaign to give many U.S. residents and even several authorities the mistaken impression that statutes forbid playing at online casinos.

Legal scholar Peter Andino points out that the principal pieces of federal legislation dealing with gambling are the Wire Act of 1961, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, and the infamous UIGEA, passed in 2006. According to Andino, the Sports Protection Act deals solely with sports gambling, as its name suggests.

"The Wire Act has also been interpreted by U.S. Courts, specifically the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, to apply only to sports betting. The Department of Justice would like to take a broader interpretation and say that all online gambling is forbidden by the act, but its job is merely to enforce the statute; ultimately, it is the job of the courts to rule on interpretation, and they have done so."

Andino also says the UIGEA does not make Internet gambling illegal, but simply makes processing payments involving illegal online gambling forbidden.

"However, the law does not say what constitutes illegal online gambling, and the other acts only outlaw sports wagering," stated Andino. "Thus, the strict effect of the UIGEA is to block payments involving online sports betting; all other forms of gambling are not banned by statute, and therefore are legal and should be able to process payments."

Andino believe that gaming opponents have acted and spoke repeatedly as if online gambling had been declared against the law in the hope that "if you say something often enough, it becomes accepted as truth."

The Congressional observer says the situation has become so muddled due to political trickery and misstatements; it will take a measure such as Barney Frank's proposal to regulate online casinos to clarify the situation. He noted that, while anything not expressly illegal in the U.S. is legal, this might be the rare case that requires a law declaring the legality of a subject to resolve the debate.


The Myth of Illegal Online Sports Betting