Is Sports Betting Legal Throughout the US After a Shock Supreme Court Decision?

A recent supreme court decision gave states the green light to legalize sports betting. The decision concluded with a move to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992.

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was meant to prohibit state-authorized sports gambling. Though, there was a single exemption. The state of Nevada was the only place in the US that a person was allowed to bet on the results of a game.

It’s also important to note that the law does not prohibit betting between friends and betting on animal races. In fact, many states already allow these types of wagers.

The supreme court’s 6-3 decision means that there’s a big possibility that about 32 states would legalize sports betting within the next five years.

So, is this a statement that’s written in stone? Is it really a done deal that sports gambling, as a whole, might become legal for all? Not exactly. Here’s why:

See, the decision was not meant to legalize sports betting. Let’s get that out of the way, right away. The supreme court merely moved to strike down the law that prohibited sports gambling. The decision, in no way, manner, or form, explicitly legalizes sports gambling. As such, the decision of whether to allow sports gambling rests solely in the hands of each of the heads of each state.

So, it may be legal, but it isn’t necessarily automatically allowed by the states.

Why Change Direction?

The premise behind this was that, according to the American Gaming Association, about $150 billion is illegally wagered on sports per annum.

New Jersey has long been a stalwart proponent of legalizing sports gambling. In fact, there are many legal betting platforms aside from NJ Online Casinos. Poker, Bingo, and even taking a spin on slots are all legal forms of gambling. Other states like Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Nevada are also places where gambling has been legalized.

So, what’s the rationale behind legalizing sports gambling? Simple, if you prohibit something, you are already assigning a sanction to that particular act, which is often a fine or in more severe cases, jail time. So, the natural reaction of people would be to make use of clandestine methods in order to continue the act.

By legalizing sports gambling, the government is not only able to better regulate it and to impose rules upon its practice, and it’s also going to be able to collect taxes from those who want to bet on sports. Legislators can choose to divert this money toward treatment or mitigation of the ill effects of gambling, whereas that money used to just vanish into the black market.

So, not only is the government able to ensure that sports gambling sessions are carried out as fairly and as safely as possible, but the government is also able to rely on an extra source of funds which it can use to fund other projects.

After all, if the 150 billion dollar figure that was found to be associated with illegal sports betting rings true, would it not be a wise assumption that many people already gamble illegally? That they gamble to the point that it may be very difficult, if not impossible to adhere to the existing laws.

Even those who oppose gambling can agree, it’s better for that money to go toward positive uses than to be controlled entirely by criminal enterprises.