Legal Football Betting

Legal football betting is a reality in the United States. Both online and off. But the beauty of betting football games online, as opposed to in a brick-and-mortar setting, is that the Internet is now available just about everywhere in the US. From your smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop PC, you can quickly and reliably jump online, and access high quality betting lines for NFL football betting or NCAA college football betting, and in some cases watch the game streaming live on your device. But there are two major facts which seem to be relatively unknown by those Internet sports bettors that would love to legally place a football bet on the Internet. First off, no US citizen has ever been charged with placing an online wager as a criminal activity in the USA. And secondly, the three main laws which govern legal football betting and all other virtual wagering in the United States of America have helped create a trustworthy and reliable offshore legal football betting industry. Let's take a look at the laws in the US at the federal level which relate to football betting online. For additional information on the legality of sports betting, you can check our our section on Football Betting Laws. This guide also contains other resources designed to enhance your football betting sessions, including a helpful section on football betting tips.

This guide will provide you with accurate and up to date information concerning the legality of football betting in the United States. We will go over the federal laws that are in place to govern US based football betting, and how these laws affect your options in the USA. American citizens do have more opportunities and flexibility than many realize, and it is imperative that you make informed decisions based on the right information if you are seeking access to legally sanctioned football betting lines that provide you with a secure and legitimate wagering environment compliant with state and federal laws, and covering NCAAF betting lines and NFL betting lines, including options for betting on the Super Bowl..

There are several US federal laws in place which govern US based sports betting throughout the country. These laws are taken seriously and still enforced as we found out through New Jersey's recent attempts to bypass these laws and develope their own state based sports betting gambling options. Their appeal to the Supreme Court was denied and they are being forced to comply with the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act which prohibits US sports betting everywhere in the US except for Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon. These federal laws combine to effectively ban the expansion of sports betting in the United States both online and offline. Below you will find an explanation on each of these laws and how they affect sports betting opportunities for US players.

The Interstate Wire Act of 1961, usually referred to simply as the Federal Wire Act, this piece of legislation was aimed at organized crime. Without reprinting the convoluted legalese which makes up this important piece of gambling law, we will summarize. The Wire Act was created to criminalize any company in the United States which processes a wired or wireless gambling transaction which aids in the placement of a bet for money. It was aimed directly at the sports betting industry in the US, looking to halt illegal gambling activity. Because this piece of legislation was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy and was aimed at, in his words, "the (US) Nation's communications systems", it created an undeniable base for legitimate non-US or offshore gambling businesses which would appear with the arrival of the Internet.

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (also known as PASPA) became law in 1992. With good intention, the United States Senate held multiple public hearings chaired by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks. The purpose was to see if a federal piece of legislation was required to strengthen the Federal Wire Act in limiting the ability of criminals to control the outcome of professional or amateur sporting contests in the US. Nevada, Montana, Oregon and Delaware at that time had already passed legal football and sports betting legislation. So they were not affected by PASPA, whose goal is to make it a criminal act for "a government entity to sponsor, operate, advertise, promote, license, or authorize by law or compact, or a person" to promote and/or operate a gambling business, which offers wagering on amateur or professional athletics in the United States of America. Even the Department of Justice cried foul, vehemently claiming that PASPA crushes individual states' rights. Actually not a very effective piece of legislation, PASPA has only been called on a single time in history. And that was in reference to private casino gambling, never to football betting or other sports wagering. Just one more legal inconvenience which bolstered the legitimate offshore football betting industry.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (also known as the UIGEA Bill) has become the most referenced sports betting law that affects your ability as a US citizen to bet on football games online. But only because it is the most recent piece of online gambling regulation in the United States, and the first with the word Internet in its title. Actually sneaked into legitimacy as a rider on a port security act that had absolutely nothing to do with placing football and other sports wagers online, UIGEA was "hastily tacked onto the end of unrelated legislation" as reported by The Economist.

Like the Wire Act, it is directly aimed at the processing of financial transactions, and not at US football and other sports bettors. UIGEA "prohibits gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments in connection with the participation of another person in a bet or wager that involves the use of the Internet and that is unlawful under any federal or state law." However, this is United States legislation. It has no application or legal standing in Canada, Costa Rica, the United Kingdom and other legitimate online gambling jurisdictions. Even the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that this piece of legislation has no legitimacy outside of the United States. This once again legitimizes the position of non-US football betting sites to responsibly and reliably offer football and other sports wagering options for US players.