Providing information about legal online gambling in the United States is exactly what this page is dedicated to. While the thriving gambling industry includes both brick-and-mortar and online gambling businesses, we focus on online gambling, which is by far the more popular of the two types. The state-by-state legality of online gambling is a contentious topic among legislators, but more states are adopting online gambling legislation every year.
US Presidents and Regulated Online Gambling The US Wire Act is a law that prohibits interstate sports betting. In 2019, the US Department of Justice tried to extend the ban to all forms of online betting. The DOJ’s proposed interpretation of the law was ruled out as incorrect by a district court but is currently in federal appeals court.
Even in states that don’t offer online gambling, residents can still gamble online using international gambling websites—that is, gambling websites that are based in other countries. Even for players for whom there are no state-licensed options available, international gambling websites are a safe and legal alternative. These international sites offer access to every imaginable form of gambling, including, but not limited to, poker, sports betting, blackjack, casino table games, slots, and bingo.
Current State Of Legal Online Gambling In The USA
Legal online gambling in the U.S. is still in its early formative stages. With the announcement in late 2019 that West Virginia would be legalizing full online casino gambling, it became just the fourth such state in the union. While popular attitudes toward gambling are becoming more positive, the United States still has a long way to go before online gambling is normalized and broadly accepted. While legislators bring methodical change to gambling laws, online gambling through international websites has evolved into a thriving business, with American consumers betting billions of dollars through online gambling sites every month.
Is Online Gambling Legal In The USA?
Yes, online gambling is legal in the U.S. While the majority of states are either lacking or completely devoid of state-regulated online gambling, internationally licensed gambling websites are legal for people across the country. Legal forms of online gambling include poker, blackjack, roulette, slots, daily fantasy, and sports betting, among many others. These websites are still regulated by international gambling agencies to ensure that they are fair to their players and that they meet both ethics and quality standards, but the only legal requirement for most U.S. players to register with an international gambling site is that they be at least 18 years old with valid ID.
Types Of Legal USA Online Gambling
Any form of gambling that is legal at a casino is also legal online, along with many others that aren’t available in casinos. Legal forms of online gambling range from different common variations of poker to live dealer baccarat to political election betting. Each of these subcategories of gambling supports its own thriving player community of players. It’s worth looking through the offerings of a handful of major international gambling websites to see what they games they offer, as it likely won’t take long to find something novel and interesting. Here are a few popular forms of online gambling. This is not a complete list:
- Poker
- Blackjack
- Sports Betting
- Pari-Mutuel Wagering
- Slots
- Bingo
- Keno
- Lottery games
- Roulette
- Baccarat
- Squares Games
Legal Sports Betting
After the 2018 Supreme Court decision to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), it became legal for individual states to determine the legality of sports betting within their own borders. In that relatively short time frame, over 20 states have since passed bills legalizing sports betting, with Washington being the most recent. With every state setting its own laws, there is a lot of variability between each state in terms of offerings and availability.
For those who don’t want to spend hours reading through the dense text of each state’s sports betting bill, global online sportsbooks are a nice, simple alternative. Their regulations governing player eligibility are nice and streamlined. If you are 18 years old, you are eligible to create an account and wager on sporting events all over the world. When you go to withdraw your winnings, you will be asked to show proof of ID.
Legal Online Casinos
There are four states that have legalized online casino gambling: Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. West Virginia has not yet launched any in-state online casinos. Online casino gaming is legal in all states through regulated global online casinos like Ignition and Café Casino. Every game that you would expect to find in a normal retail casino is also available through these legal international online casinos, including roulette, craps, baccarat, poker, and slots.
Online casinos offer a number of advantages over their brick-and-mortar counterparts. They offer 24/7 gaming capability with full-time customer service staff available through multiple means of communication. Online casinos also offer unmatched convenience with the ability to play from anywhere using any wi-fi or data-connected device. With optimized mobile sites designed from the ground up for a touch screen, it’s easy to begin playing from literally anywhere. Finally, they offer huge deposit bonuses that can be worth upwards of $3,000.
Legal Online Poker Sites
Like broader online casinos, online poker is legal in a small handful of states, but for most Americans, international poker websites are the way to go. To play online poker, bettors will need to download a site’s custom-designed online poker software. Each site’s software will have its own selection of poker variants to choose from, with some offering the option to play both multi-player variants online against human opponents and single-player variants (like three-card stud) against a computer dealer. All the same benefits of online casinos are available to online poker players, including deposit bonuses, advanced infrastructure, and easy banking.
Legal Horse Betting Sites
Horse betting offers more options right now than traditional sports betting, and its is legal in nearly 30 different states. All states that have licensed horse racing tracks also offer online wagering which offer a great selection of betting options for local and regional races. Players can also wager on larger national and international horse races through global sportsbooks like Bovada. These larger sportsbooks offer a wider selection of prop bets, although they don’t have the same great selection of smaller races to choose from.
DFS Sites
Daily fantasy sports (DFS) are legal in 43 out of 50 states, with all major DFS operators being available in 38 out of 50. DFS games are much like traditional fantasy sports, except that lineups reset after every game, which reduces the catastrophic effect that one injury or suspension can have on a fantasy player’s season. Most DFS sites also offer additional features to mitigate bad luck, like late lineup drops and a system of dropping the lowest scoring player from each DFS lineup. DFS games are available for every major professional sports league in the U.S.
Online Lottery Sites
The only states that offer legal online lottery sales are:
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- Illinois
- Michigan
- New Hampshire
- Pennsylvania
While lottery ticket sales are often the single biggest producer of gambling revenue in a state, backlash from licensed lottery retailers like gas station owners, along with concerns about potentially enabling gambling addition in youths, have prevented most states from adopting online lottery ticket sales. For now, only six states have an online lottery (Minnesota was a seventh, but the state’s gas station owners successfully lobbied against it). There are no reputable licensed international online lotteries, so if you don’t live in one of these states, don’t try to buy lottery tickets online.
Legal Online Slots
Slot machines are one of the most popular and accessible ways to gamble. Everyone, from gamblers with decades of experience to Grandma Betty visiting a casino for the first time ever, can pick up slots immediately. Online slots offer the same simplicity and even more flexibility. Online slot machine design is the same as physical slot machine design, except online slots do not require bulky, expensive machines to run. As a result, slots websites can offer a wider selection of slots to larger groups of players. Each of these machines offers players the ability to set their own bet level too, which is great for ensuring that players never have to risk more than they are comfortable with.
Esports Betting Sites
Esports betting has surged in popularity over the last two years as an alternative (or an addition) to traditional sports betting. E-sports are similar in function and structure to traditional sports, except the “sport” being played is a video game. Despite being much maligned by popular media, esports athletes are still dedicated and hard-working practitioners of a difficult craft that put countless hours into what they do. They compete in intense matches that can be immensely fun to watch and bet on. The most popular e-sports betting sites are generally going to be the same international gambling sites that offer sports betting, with e-sports usually being lumped in as another category of sports betting.
Mobile Gambling In The USA
Mobile gambling is largely regulated under the purview of online gambling in the United States. A decent number of states offer mobile sports betting, but only three offer fully legal mobile gambling. In the states that license and regulate online and mobile gambling platforms, consumers can download dedicated mobile gambling apps. These apps are relatively barebones compared to a full casino experience, but they get the job done for players who heavily prioritize the ability to use a downloadable app.
Major international online casinos present an interesting alternative to these state-run apps: a fully optimized mobile site. While these websites can’t offer downloadable apps to American consumers in a traditional app store, they have all focused much of their research and development time on optimizing their websites to function properly with a mobile device, including a specialized touch screen interface and access to their entire range of features from any such device.
Live Dealer Gambling Sites
Live dealer gambling is a recent innovation in the world of gambling. Essentially, live dealer gambling acts as a hybrid between traditional casino gaming and online casino gaming. Live dealer games connect players through a live audiovisual feed to actual dealers—experienced casino industry professionals. These dealers deal cards to players as if they were in the room and react and respond to comments. Live dealer gambling is a great way to combine the convenience of online gambling with the sense of connection and tangibility offered by a live dealer working with physical gaming equipment.
Legal Gambling With Bitcoin
Every major international online gambling site uses a form of cryptocurrency, with Bitcoin being by far the most popular. While the term ‘cryptocurrency’ has become a scary buzzword in American media, reality is much more mundane. Bitcoin is a secure, untraceable currency that can be processed instantly. For international online gambling sites, Bitcoin is the easiest and fastest way to both deposit and withdraw money. While some websites charge fees for transactions made using certain payment methods, Bitcoin transactions are almost universally free. To incentivize players who might be hesitant about it to use Bitcoin, online gambling sites often offer extra deposit bonuses for Bitcoin deposits. They do this because Bitcoin transactions are less logistically challenging for both them and for their players.
Online Gambling Laws In The USA
Individual states are free to set their own laws regarding the legality of online gambling. Most states had pre-existing anti-gambling laws on the books when online gambling first emerged in the 1990s, and rather than spend time updating existing laws, most states simply elected to interpret their existing laws as applying to online gambling as well. Unfortunately, online gambling was a drastic change to the fundamental structure of gambling, and probably warranted some legislative adjustments. A few states have directly addressed the issue of online gambling in their code of laws, but most have defaulted to existing laws.
There are no all-or-nothing provision for the legalization of online gambling, so many states choose to legalize just one or two types while the rest remain illegal. For instance, the majority of states allow daily fantasy sports (DFS), but only four have legalized full online casino gambling. West Virginia became the most recent state to adopt full online casino gaming, but for most states, sports betting has become the hot button issue. Thankfully, gamblers in all states can legally play with global online casinos like Bovada and Ignition. By virtue of operating from other countries, these online casinos are not subject to the same state and federal laws as casinos based in the United States.
States With Legal Online Gambling
Legal online gambling options are available in all states, but only four states offer fully legal state-licensed online casino gambling. These states are:
- Delaware
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
- West Virginia
Many other states offer online gambling in a limited capacity. Most offer licensed daily fantasy sports (DFS) contests, for example. Others offer online sports betting or online lottery ticket sales, but not casino gaming. While it is worth reading about your individual state’s online gambling laws, it is simpler to just play with an international regulated gambling website. Rules for using these websites are much less complicated and draconian than state gambling laws, so they present a more hassle-free way to play. With few exceptions, international gambling sites accept players from all 50 states.
Legal Online Gambling Age In The USA
One of the consequences of allowing each state to set their own gambling laws is that there is no standardized legal age for gambling with a state-licensed operator. Every state has its own laws regarding the legal age to participate in various forms of gambling. Some states use a universal age of 18 years old, while others use separate age requirements for different types of gambling. Once again, online gambling sites based in other countries offer a simpler set of rules: if you are 18 years old and have a valid, government-issued ID, you can participate in all forms of online gambling offered by these sites.
Future Of Online Gambling In The USA
While online gambling laws in the U.S. are a difficult-to-resolve mess, the future of the online gambling experience looks bright. Online gambling grows in worldwide popularity every year, and the investment in improving gambling technology and infrastructure has been staggering. Recent advancements like live, in-play betting and live dealer casino games are just the tip of the iceberg. With technology advancing at an exponential rate, there is no telling what future evolutions of online gambling might look like.
In time, most states will likely move to fully legalize online gambling. The overwhelming popularity of sports betting has proven that there is a definitive financial incentive to expanding gambling options in the United States, and states that don’t offer online gambling will soon find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. The increasing ubiquity of sports betting is also doing wonders for national attitudes toward gambling. In essence, what was once a taboo hobby has now become mainstream, and the next generation of lawmakers will likely look on gambling much more favorably than the current one.
Legal Online Gambling United States
There is a few different types of USA online gambling that are popular among players. There is online casino gambling that allows players to play all of the casino games they play in Vegas right on their computer. Then there is USA online poker, which is where you play Texas Hold Em in a public poker room for real money. Then there is the ever popular sports betting. Regardless of what types of USA online gambling you are doing, we have the information here for you.
USA Online Casinos
USA online gambling at USA online casinos is one of the fastest growing ways for USA players to gamble online and we have a great selection of USA casinos for you to look through. We have tons of experience with USA gambling sites and there is a few casinos that will let you have a Vegas type experience right from the comfort of their own home. These USA gambling casinos have all of the features that are important to USA players including several USA casino deposit methods accepted, USA casino bonuses, and much more. For more information about USA casino gambling, check out our USA casino reviews that include all there is to know about all of the USA friendly casinos available.
Slots.lv Casino provides their players some of the best gambling options around. Slots.lv has taken the standard model of casino gambling and turned it into something much better. You will find big bonuses, easy game play, simple deposits and some of the highest paying games on the market. Slots.lv offers their users one of the highest deposit bonuses - a 400% match to $4,000 - to all new players. Slots.lv provides their users one of the most generous gambling centers around, with slots paying more than 90% of the money drawn in. Deposits are simple enough with VISA and MasterCard, as well as prepaid cards.
USA Online Poker
We have all see the World Series Of Poker on TV and that is what has made USA poker gambling more popular then it ever has been before. We all have that dream of being the next MoneyMaker and making it to Vegas with a small little $5 buy in but we also know the odds of that are pretty much none. There are some great USA online poker sites but there is also some rogue ones that you need to stay away from. We have our list of what we consider to be the best USA poker rooms for online gambling and we have put them all below for you to easily make a decision.
Bovada's poker room is honestly the only one worth using anymore. They aren't going to shut down or lose their gaming license like some of the larger poker rooms, and they even have a player base that will give you new competition every time you sit at the tables. Bovada's software includes multi-tabling abilities, guaranteed tournaments, cash games, sit and go tournaments, stakes ranging from pennies to hundreds of dollars, and one of the best bonuses in all of online poker. A 110% match can be collected, giving up to $1,100 in free cash. Bovada provides 10% upfront, while the remaining $1,000 is distributed over time. Bovada accepts MyPayLinq, VISA and wire transfers, so you will not have much trouble funding your account.
Is Online Casino Legal In Usa
USA Online Sports Betting
If you are a big sports fan like most of the USA residents then you have probably asked yourself if there is any USA sports gambling sites still available. The answer is yes and they are actually better then they have been. Sports betting is one of the most popular types of USA online gambling and we have all of the top USA sportsbooks to help you get started. We highly recommend that if you want to bet on sports then you should not gamble at any other online sportsbooks unless they are listed below. There is more rogue sports gambling sites out there then any other type of online gambling so be sure that you are playing at a trusted sportsbook like the ones below. We have all there is to know about sportsbooks accepting USA players like USA sportsbook bonuses, sportsbook reviews, USA sportsbook deposit methods, and more.
Bovada's sportsbook is one of the most impressive gambling sites to ever open to USA players. Those who join up with Bovada will find that they offer some of the most favorable odds, with a wide range of betting types and extra features. Bovada has straight and exotic wagers, with high paying parlays and more than fair spreads. Bovada provides their users with an enormous deposit bonus, which is a 10% unlimited match bonus. They have a live, in game betting card that emulates a Vegas style sportsbook, as well as regular promotions that will help you win serious money with very little effort - if you can adequately choose the proper picks or selections that would make you win. In the end, Bovada is one of the most impress sports betting sites around, and we can tell you that using them as your betting site is something that can earn you serious cash.