Sports betting laws and regulations
Sports gambling laws are different from place to place. In the United States, sports gambling is considered illegal in most states save some like Nevada, Montana etc. The legitimacy and general acceptance of sports betting is extremely regulated in several European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans need to know how to bet tax-free – great info at GertGambell.net. “Sports gambling” is considered by legalized sports gambling proponents as a sports hobby for sports enthusiasts to increase their fascination with a sporting event thus being a big benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are many 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 truly is getting tough to govern the sports gambling actions of Americans. For quite a while the United States argued against the online gambling legal issues by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to stop sports gambling activities between states by using wire containing devices along with the telephone. Because the internet had not been yet invented at that time, legal experts today question whether regulations actually pertained to the net services or otherwise.
The Justice Department of America however claimed that the Wire Act did refer to all forms 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 this 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.
The thing that was important was the reality that the act dealt just with the funding of internet gambling accounts and not the actual placing of the bet. Therefore an online gambling law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that this bill which was passed had no impact on the betting activity of the individual but centered 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 frame 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 nation 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 gambling on the internet) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled for 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 United States copyright and trademark laws.
