Sports betting laws are different from country to country. In the United States, sports gambling is regarded as illegal practically in most states save some like Nevada, Montana etc. The legality and general acceptance of sports betting is extremely regulated in several European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans must know how to bet tax-free – excellent info at GertGambell.net. “Sports gambling” is considered by legalized sports gambling proponents as a sports hobby for sports fans to increase their fascination with a sporting event thus becoming a big benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are plenty of sites that happen to be respectable that will not allow US residents to bet through them although with the appearance of the internet and offshore gambling sites it is getting more tough to govern the sports gambling activities of Americans. For quite a while the United States argued against the internet gambling legalities by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to stop sports gambling activities between the states by making use of wire containing devices and the telephone. Considering that the internet was not yet invented during those times, legal experts today question whether regulations actually pertained to the net services or not.
The Justice Department of the US however claimed 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 increase the US port security. Attached to it 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 gambling activity.
What was important was the reality that the act dealt only with the funding of internet betting accounts rather than the actual placing of the bet. Thus an Internet gambling law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that this bill that was passed had no impact on the gambling activity of the individual but centered only around the restriction of specific transactions which were financial and relating to the banks and internet gambling sites. Thus the bill did not make internet gambling illegal nevertheless it made funding ones bet or wager on the internet sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction instead of the actual act of betting by the individual.
Rep Barney Frank then introduced in 2007, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act as a way to legalize internet sports gambling and at the same time 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 betting 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.
