Sports gambling laws
Sports betting laws are different from place to place. In the United States, sports gambling is regarded as illegal in most states save a few like Nevada, Montana etc. The legality and general acceptance of sports betting is extremely 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 regarded by legalized sports gambling proponents as being a sports hobby for sports enthusiasts to increase their interest in 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 do not allow US residents to bet through them but with the appearance of the internet and offshore gambling sites 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 states by making use of wire containing devices and the telephone. Because the internet had not been yet invented at that time, legal experts today question whether the law actually pertained to the internet services or otherwise.
The Justice Department of America however claimed the Wire Act did relate to all forms of online or internet gambling. In 2006, The congress wrote the SAFE Port Act and passed it to increase the United States port security. Attached with this was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibited US residents from usage 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 only 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 the bill which was passed had no impact on the gambling activity of the individual but focused only on the restriction of specific 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 internet sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction and not the specific act of betting by way of the individual.
Rep Barney Frank then introduced in 2007, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act in order to legalize internet sports gambling and also at the same time Rep.es McDermott introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act to regulate betting sites online 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 that the US (based on their sports gambling laws and ban on betting on the net) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled for their favor and though the US appealed the original ruling was upheld on plenty of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million as well as the right to penalize the US copyright and trademark laws.