Sports betting laws are different from country to country. In the US, sports gambling is regarded as illegal in most states save a few like Nevada, Montana etc. The legitimacy and general acceptance of sports betting is highly regulated in numerous 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 being a sports hobby for sports fans to increase their interest in a sporting event thus becoming a great benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are many sites that happen to be reputable that will not allow US citizens to bet through them but with the advent of the internet and offshore gambling websites it is getting difficult to govern the sports gambling activities of Americans. For many years the United States argued up 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 America however claimed that 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 raise the United States port security. Attached with it was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibited US citizens from utilization of electronic fund transfer or checks, credit cards etc to finance any internet gambling activity.
What was important was the reality that the act dealt just with the funding of internet betting accounts rather than the specific placing of the bet. Thus an online gambling law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that this bill which was passed didn’t have effect on the gambling activity of the person but focused only on the restriction of certain transactions that were financial and relating to the banks and internet gambling sites. Thus the bill did not make internet gambling illegal but it made funding ones bet or wager on the web sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction instead of the specific act of betting by way of 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 online and collect tax on all bets made.
The country of Antigua and Barbuda in 2003 registered a complaint against the US with the World Trade Organization the US (based on their sports gambling laws and ban on gambling on the internet) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled for their favor and though the United States appealed the original ruling was upheld on plenty of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million and the right to penalize the US copyright and trademark laws.
