The USA has a long history of illegal gambling in sports. Gambling scandals and political control have ended in the prohibition and regulating sports gambling in the USA. Laws that connected with sports gambling along with other standards have already been changing and the changes have been described as “Waves”. The earliest of these waves was in the Colonial Period that lasted till the 1800s. The next wave came about at the end of the US Civil war till the early 20th century. The third of these waves started during the Great Depression till date.
Sports gambling has always been illegal in the US. Puritan attitudes during the Colonial era were adopted towards sports and other gambling, possession of cards, gaming tables, dice etc. Later on it was only allowed if it was not a trade but only innocent recreation. Early settlers had the view that gambling was just a harmless hobby. Gambling was likened to the frontier spirit as both of them involved opportunism, risk taking and high expectations.
Illegal sports betting has always been associated with mobsters and organized crime in the United States. Illegal sports gambling was a huge business for gang mobsters in the 1920s and 1930s. Organized bookmaking systems were put in place by organized crime throughout the nation. Horse racing betting became popular in those times.
In 1931 Nevada legalized casino gambling and here too organized crime took control of all of the casino betting business. Mobsters controlled illegal nationwide wire services Trans America Wire and Continental Wire Service. Mobsters such as infamous Al Capone set up their own personal wire services to prevent gamblers from taking any benefit from delays by making sure they posted winning bets before official results were out.
The Federal Government of the US cracked upon mobsters and organized crime over the 1950s and forced them out of the Nevada Casino gambling industry. But this would not dissuade the organized crime mobsters who took over illegal bookmaking. Law Enforcement authorities do acknowledge that independent bookies are functioning in the nation yet it is obvious that organized crime still controls all of the big bucks in betting.
Animal fights furthermore have a long history in the US despite the bad reputation it has. Most animal fights include dog fights and cock fights that have become favored by street gangs and big numbers of weapons and cash usually are present in the course of these fights.
History of illegal gambling in sports reveals that cockfighting was illegal and banned by most states the United States over the 1800s. It remains illegal today in 48 states. The law in Minnesota makes any king of gambling bet Illegal. Thus any sort of card game where you’ve got to spend to participate in a game and possess possibilities to win cash is a “bet” and thus also considered to be illegal gambling. It is essential to note that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 only deals with the funding of internet gambling not the actual act of betting.
