USA Legal Online Casinos

Contrary to popular opinion, gambling online in the United States of America was never illegal at the Federal level of Government.

To some extent, there had always existed a misconception that any online casino not specifically licensed and regulated by an individual state was automatically illegal to play at, but this is not true. What is true is that almost all states, perhaps even all of them, have laws against operating a casino within that state that is not licensed and regulated.

Of course, for those states without regulated online casinos, or even for some of that states that do have, there are a wide variety of unregulated online casinos operators willing to allow players from your state to play. These casinos are licensed, of course, licensing requirements can be a little lacking in some jurisdictions; they are just not regulated by your state.

The reason that these entities are able to offer their online casinos to you is because they are not only licensed outside of the United States, but also that they are physically located outside of the United States. Any known owners and operators of these online casinos also probably avoid traveling to the United States because, as long as they are not within a state’s individual boundaries, then they are out of jurisdictional reach.

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UIGEA & PASPA

If the misconception that merely to gamble online had already existed, then this misconception was only exacerbated by the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, (Hereafter, UIGEA) which did include some provisions related to online playing, but none that would make it illegal for players to sign up and play.

We can start by looking at the first paragraph of the UIGEA text from the link above:

The Act 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 (termed “restricted transactions” in the Act). The Act also requires Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board (in consultation with the U.S. Attorney General) to promulgate regulations requiring certain participants in payment systems that could be used for unlawful Internet gambling to have policies and procedures reasonably designed to identify and block or otherwise prevent or prohibit the processing of restricted transactions. These regulations are independent of any other regulatory framework, such as the Bank Secrecy Act or consumer protection regulations.

What that means is that the offshore gaming websites, such as Bovada, cannot legally accept payments or wagers from U.S. players in the event that the wager would be illegal on the Federal level or on the level of an individual state.

In most cases, prior to the overturning of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (Hereafter PASPA), by the United States Supreme Court, the only form of gambling that would have been specifically prohibited by the Federal Government would have been sports betting. Here’s a good explanation of what PASPA did prior to being overturned.

The goal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, at least, in theory, was to protect the integrity of sporting events by making it so that individuals would not be able to bet on them in most jurisdictions. In actuality, the only jurisdiction that enabled people to bet on sports ended up being Nevada, though a few others, one of which was New Jersey, could have and did not implement it quickly enough.

There would later be a lawsuit filed by New Jersey, joined by other states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, in an effort to get the Supreme Court to overturn PASPA that way those states could legally offer sports betting. However, between all of these events, a quick Google search will show that PASPA was something the Feds took really seriously and, consequently, many illegal bookies and bookmaking shops were taken down all over the country.

PASPA would eventually be overturned, so now states are able to do whatever they want when it comes to legalizing and regulating sports betting, both physical and online, as you will come to read later on in this page. If you’re only interested in select states, then please feel free to use the tab on the right to find the state you’re looking for.

Interestingly, PASPA not only made it illegal for the states to license and regulate sports betting (other than those who were grandfathered in), but it also made it illegal for anyone within the United States to even promote sports betting. I will quote the relevant sections from the source linked above:

Section 3702. Unlawful sports gambling

It shall be unlawful for –

1.  a governmental entity to sponsor, operate, advertise, promote, license, or authorize by law or compact, or
2.  a person to sponsor, operate, advertise, or promote, pursuant to the law or compact of a governmental entity,

a lottery, sweepstakes, or other betting, gambling, or wagering scheme based, directly or indirectly (through the use of geographical references or otherwise), on one or more competitive games in which amateur or professional athletes participate, or are intended to participate, or on one or more performances of such athletes in such games.

The wording of #1 is interesting because it technically makes it illegal for states to make a law that would allow for sports betting. That’s kind of amusing because it’s not unusual for states to vote laws into place that cannot technically take effect right away, but will take effect as soon as the Supreme Court rules one way, or another, on a particular matter.

More interesting, and perhaps relevant to sites like this one, is that PASPA also made it illegal to advertise or promote unlawful sports wagering.

For those reasons, prior to the overturn of PASPA, many offshore online sportsbooks did not explicitly offer their services in the United States, though there were a few who still did. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that most affiliate sites, especially those who were based in the United States or had writers based in the United States, would not want to advertise or promote them anyway lest they run afoul of Federal law.

PASPA would later be challenged on a few different grounds, but most relevantly, on Tenth Amendment grounds:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Prior to the original passage of PASPA, states had been entirely left to do as they wanted when it came to all things gambling. There were few, if any, Federal laws that would restrict gambling in any way whatsoever, so PASPA was considered by some legal scholars to be a pretty substantial overreach even when it originally became the law of the land.

Think about it: Not only did the Federal Government not really have any laws that would be pertain to the conduct of gambling, or what forms of gambling would or would not be legal, but some states had already opened Commercial Casinos and Nevada had already had legal sports betting since the 1930’s!

In other words, sports betting or otherwise, the absence of any Federal Legislation had made it presumptively clear that all manner of gambling was the purview of the individual states. Anyway, PASPA has since been overturned, for that reason, there does not appear to be a law in place that would prohibit anyone from advertising for online sports betting sites.

That brings us back to the UIGEA, which is still in place. The UIGEA served to further the perception that it was illegal for residents of states to gamble online. Perhaps that was a subordinate goal of the law to create that perception, but the truth is, the law did no such thing. Fundamentally, the UIGEA is a law regulating financial conduct of businesses and institutions.

The first thing that the UIGEA did was that it made it illegal for online casino operators to knowingly accept payment from U.S. citizens for the purpose of gambling. Naturally, the offshore operators do not care about that aspect at all—which is why they are offshore. The ones who want to play it really safe are likely located (or owners/operators physically live in) jurisdictions that do not have an extradition policy with the U.S..

Of course, we don’t think that the Federal Government would actually go to other jurisdictions looking for operators who knowingly accepted money from U.S. players anyway. They’d already be on pretty shaky ground to prosecute someone not located in the country, who is not a resident of the country and wasn’t physically located in the country at the time the crime occurred of breaking the laws of this country.

Therefore, action being taken against operators for a violation of this nature was always unlikely, unless those operators were foolish enough to be physically present in the United States or in one of the United States’ territories.

The second major thing the UIGEA did, this one more relevant to players, is that it made it unlawful for a U.S.-based financial institution to knowingly conduct financial transactions with an operator of an offshore Internet Gaming website for the purpose of a player funding an account.

The reason that this was relevant to players is because, in many cases, it made it significantly more difficult for them to deposit and withdraw funds from online casinos. In the case of depositing, at a minimum, the casino would have to pretend to be something other than a casino in order for the banks to allow for the electronic transfer of funds.

For that reason, many of these offshore online casinos utilize third-party payment processors as a means of disguising the nature of the transaction. In many of these cases, the transaction will be made to appear as though it is for some purpose unrelated to casinos, such as a coffee order, or something along those lines. Unfortunately, the necessity of using these third-party payment processors creates additional cost for the casinos, as they must pay for the third-party services, which makes it more difficult for them to offer juicy promotions for the purpose of Bonus Whoring.

It also makes it more difficult for players to get their money as the United States based financial institutions will often reject electronic transfers that are actually going to the player. What often has to happen with offshore casinos is that they will, instead, send the player a check that often does not make it clear that the source of funds is an Internet casinos. It’s interesting that banks should reject the transfers in, on occasion, because it doesn’t appear (to me) that there is a law against the banks accepting money–-just on allowing players to fund offshore online casino accounts.

One solution that many offshore operators have found is that of Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, though such have increasingly become more regulated than they once were. However, in most cases, players are able to deposit into online casinos using crypto (which is usually converted into their country’s currency, or, if not, into USD on the player’s account balance) and then they can either withdraw back in the form of crypto, or sometimes receive a check.

The only downside for players withdrawing in crypto, if that is the only means of withdrawal available to them, is that they are essentially gambling twice: firstly, on the casino itself, and secondly, on the crypto to USD conversion either becoming better than it was when they deposited or staying the same.

Still, the crypto-only casinos sometimes offer excellent deposit bonuses because they don’t have to pay as much to third-party payment processors, if anything at all. Even some casinos that don’t deal exclusively in cryptocurrencies have special promotions for players who deposit using Bitcoin.

Are the banks committing a crime by allowing players to deposit into online casinos? Are the players doing anything illegal?

The short answer is: No. Relevantly:

The rule requires certain participants in the designated payment systems to establish policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to identify and block or otherwise prevent or prohibit restricted transactions. A “participant” is defined as “an operator of a designated payment system, a financial transaction provider that is a member of or, has contracted for financial transaction services with, or is otherwise participating in, a designated payment system, or a third-party processor.” The term “participant” does not include a participant’s customer unless the customer is also a financial transaction provider participating on its own behalf in the designated payment system.

In other words, the transactions are prohibited and the financial institutions are required to put in place procedures and policies that would prevent those prohibited transactions, but quite simply, they aren’t necessarily expected to be able to catch all of them.

However, this can sometimes create headaches even for individuals who aren’t trying to conduct financial transactions with online casinos. If your financial institution is one that carries this sort of thing to extremes, then what might end up happening is that you will have attempted payments (out) or deposits (in) blocked by your financial institution because they are from outside of the United States and are suspected of being related to an online casino, even though they sometimes are not.

It’s also important to note that this does not apply to the financial institution’s “Customer,” which makes very clear that players are not actually doing anything illegal (federally) to attempt to deposit into online casinos…and it is certainly not illegal at the Federal level for them to play. State laws, however, can vary wildly, as we will detail below.

With that, we will now get into what sorts of financial transactions are clearly prohibited. The first thing that we will note is that the UIGEA would apply to all United States based financial institutions who are using any form of card purchases:

The rule designates five payment systems that may be used for restricted transactions: card systems, ACH systems, wire transfer systems, check collection systems, and money transmitting businesses. Participants in each system are exempt unless specifically listed in the rule as nonexempt; however, no card system participants are exempt. In general, participants in a designated payment system are exempt unless they have direct relationships with commercial customers. In addition, the rule covers only U.S. offices of payment system participants.

1. Card Systems. The rule covers all card systems, including credit, debit, and stored value. Various participants in a card system transaction have responsibilities under the non-exclusive examples provided in the joint rule for card systems.

As you can see, this would apply to all card systems including both Debit and Credit Cards. When it refers to, “Stored value,” cards, those would be something along the lines of a VISA or MasterCard Gift Card, something like that, but those often don’t scan for gambling-related transactions as closely as something like a bank-issued Debit or Credit card would.

Basically, no U.S.-based card systems operator is permitted to knowingly allow for deposits into offshore online casinos, which is why using standard debit or credit cards is often difficult. One way around this, especially if you gamble online a good bit, is to have a bank account located outside of the United States and have a card issued to you, but you might want to look at a specific casino’s Terms & Conditions to make sure that’s kosher-though we don’t know why it wouldn’t be, as long as it is your bank account and you’re not playing from a restricted country.

The usual workaround for this is to use something like a VISA or MasterCard gift card, instead. Further, the online casino might also use a third-party payment processor that is located outside of the United States and would not be subject to the UIGEA anyway. The financial institution in the United States would still be subject to that, but again, as long as they don’t know they are engaging in a financial transaction with an online casino, then nothing would happen to them.

The next type of system is ACH, and things of that nature:

ACH, Check Collection, Wire Transfer, and Money Transmitting Businesses Systems. For ACH, wire transfer, check collection, and money transmitting businesses systems, the rule focuses only on due diligence on accounts that are held directly for commercial customers. Participants in these payment systems that have direct relationships with a commercial customer can assess the risk, if any, that the customer is engaged in unlawful Internet gambling. Such participants and third-party processors are non-exempt and should have reasonably designed policies and procedures to prevent or prohibit restricted transactions.

As you can see, this rule focuses specifically on accounts that are held directly for commercial customers. These financial institutions are also supposed to restrict such transactions from happening, but again, that would only apply if the customer actually has an account with them. In other words, online casinos could theoretically accept money transfers of this nature, though we would probably recommend against depositing that way even if they did. The law goes into more detail:

The payment system participants responsible for establishing policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent or prohibit restricted transactions are as follows:

ACH systems – In domestic ACH transactions, the depository financial institution and any third-party processor receiving the credit or initiating the debit on behalf of the commercial customer.

In cross-border ACH debit transactions, the receiving gateway operator and any third-party processor that receives instructions directly from a foreign sender.

Card systems – the card system operator, merchant acquirers, third-party processors, and card issuers.

Check collection systems – the depositary bank.

Money transmitting businesses – the operator.

Wire transfer systems – the beneficiary’s bank.

In other words, the ACH systems are responsible for trying to ensure funds are not being used for the purpose of Internet Gambling in the event that it’s a domestic transaction. Of course, for it to be a domestic transaction would mean that the casino itself is operating out of the United States, which would not be a good idea for them if they are not regulated by the state in question.

With the cross-border ACH transactions, those are the entities responsible for trying to prevent a transaction that is prohibited, but again, the only way they could get in any trouble is if they knowingly allowed for such a transaction. The remaining entities are pretty self-explanatory.

The next section gets into companies that have a relationship to the financial institution directly, which would not apply to individual players at all. Most of this deals with making sure that companies offering online casinos are not using any United States financial institutions for the purpose of doing so or engaging in any transactions via those institutions. If you wish to read more about that, we will link it again here, and it can be found on page 5.

Once again, the law is designed such as to not create an undue burden for the financial institutions themselves, especially not as relates to individual customers doing things. The most relevant paragraph can be found here:

In determining whether a financial institution or third-party processor has “actual knowledge,” the rule contemplates that it would receive reliable information about both the transactions and their illegality from a source such as a government agency. Financial institutions are not required by UIGEA to proactively collect information independently to develop actual knowledge of restricted transactions.

As we stated before, these financial institutions cannot knowingly engage in financial transactions with offshore casinos, but they are not required to deeply investigate the source of every transaction as that would be impossible for them to do. Instead, the Government will do the investigating and will determine which entities the banks should not engage in transactions with. This is the reason why online casinos have to switch third-party payment processors sometimes and why there are so many of them; if one gets put out of commission, then a new one is generally created.

That’s essentially everything that the UIGEA does, and the entirety of it is focused on online casino operators and their relationship to United States based financial institutions. The UIGEA absolutely does not place the onus on individuals not to gamble online and does not prohibit an individual from attempting to make a deposit into an online casino–much less does it actually make it illegal for a player to play at one.

What we have here is a simple misunderstanding of what that law actually does, so many people arrived at the conclusion that gambling online is somehow illegal in the United States, which could not be further from the truth at the federal level. In fact, many individual states have now licensed and regulated either online casinos, online sportsbooks, or both. Even in those states that have not regulated online gambling in any form, most state laws are focused on operators, rather than players, as we will detail below.

Finally, even in those states where it is illegal (assuming there are no regulated online casinos or sportsbooks in the state) for players to play online, we have found no instance of someone actually being prosecuted for doing so. We would be flatly shocked if any state were to ever take action against mere players, unfortunately, draconian instruments such as the UIGEA do make it more difficult to do what you want with your own money and make it more costly for the casinos to do business, which probably means promotions would be even better if casinos did not have to jump over all of these hurdles.

The good news is, there are some great promotions still out there; here are a few.

The Legality Of Online Gambling In The United States

The next thing that we will focus on is which states have licensed and regulated online gambling, whether it be casinos, sportsbooks, or both. In this section, we will also look at any state laws that would impact players in those states where online gambling has yet to be regulated.

ALABAMA

• Regulated Online Casinos: No
• Regulated Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Ambiguous
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

For the State of Alabama, there are presently no online casinos or sportsbooks that are regulated by the state’s Government. Alabama law states a few things when it comes to unlawful gambling:

There are a couple of laws in the State of Alabama that would seem to make online gambling illegal. One makes it a Class C Misdemeanor to, “Knowingly advances or profit from unlawful gambling activity as a player.” However, if there is nothing specifically in the Alabama code to make online gambling patently illegal, then I would suggest one is not engaged in, “Unlawful gambling activity.” There is another statute that prohibits, “Possession of a gambling device,” which is a Class A Misdemeanor. However, the gambling device is illegal if it is, “Any other gambling device, with the intention that it be used in the advancement of an unlawful gambling activity.”

With that, the law might presumptively make online gambling illegal, but one thing to note is that the state has made laws specifically making it illegal to operate an online casino, but did not legislate anything that specifically makes it illegal to play at one.

Of course, if it were illegal, then whatever device you would be playing from could constitute an, “Unlawful gambling device,” but again, we are not sure that playing online in the capacity of a player (as opposed to actually operating an online casino) is illegal.

The most recent activity to expand gambling in the State of Alabama was this 2022 bill, which would have allowed for both retail and online sports betting to be regulated through the state’s Lottery Department, but that bill died a Legislative death without even going to a vote.

In the meantime, we could find no instance of any player facing any criminal action for the mere act of playing online, so we expect that you would be pretty safe in that regard.

ALASKA

• Regulated Online Casinos: No
• Regulated Online Sportsbooks: No
• Gambling Online: Technically Illegal
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Alaska law is interesting as it would seem to make it presumptively illegal to play online as all forms of unregulated gambling are illegal as a player. What’s unique about Alaska is that the first offense is termed a, ‘Violation,’ and does not seem to come with an actual penalty of any kind. Further offenses could be misdemeanors, but we suppose just don’t do it more than once if you are caught…and the state almost certainly wouldn’t care to catch you anyway.

On that note, we can add that we found no instance of anyone being prosecuted for gambling online in the capacity of a player.

There was a bill introduced in 2022 that would have legalized mobile sports betting in Alaska, which is interesting, because Alaska lacks both Commercial Casinos and a Lottery. For that reason, we would expect that a new regulatory agency would have to be created by the state in order to oversee the sportsbooks.

In any event, that bill seems to have, as with Alabama, died a Legislative Death as it was introduced in February of 2022 and did not make it to a vote during that calendar year.

Fortunately, for Alaskans, there are plenty of online casinos operating within your state and we cannot see that there would be any actual penalties for a first offense of unlawful gambling should you choose to play at those. Of course, even in states where there could theoretically be penalties, we’ve never heard of anyone actually being prosecuted for that.

ARIZONA

• Regulated Online Casinos: No
• Regulated Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Online Casino Gambling Illegal: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Arizona is one of several states to introduce legalized and regulated online sports wagering since the overturn of PASPA. Given how many states jumped on the opportunity after the overturn of what was once the law of the land, we can definitely conclude that PASPA was a serious overreach by the Federal Government.

In the case of Arizona law regarding online gambling, we find that it is pretty unambiguous.

Whether or not it would ever be enforced, the language of Arizona State Law makes it clear that online gambling is illegal for players. ‘Benefiting from Gambling,’ is a Class I Misdemeanor, and is defined as, “Except for amusement or regulated gambling, a person commits benefiting from gambling if he obtains any benefit from gambling.”

We suppose that gambling online would be perfectly legal then, but only if you lose. Unless, of course, being entertained counts as a, ‘benefit,’ from gambling, then it would be illegal anyway.

Naturally, operating an online casino within the state, as with any form of operating an unlawful gambling enterprise, is dealt with much more severely. More than that, we could find no instance of anyone ever actually being prosecuted for the mere act of playing online. We certainly don’t expect that people would be lining up outside of police precincts to turn themselves in, and even if they did, we’d be surprised if law enforcement would even care.

Arizona does have a few Native American casinos, but there are no Commercial Casinos in the state. However, there are a handful of operators that now offer sportsbooks to residents.

We assume that many of those same operators could get online casinos there fairly quickly, should they ever be authorized to do so, but it’s hard to tell whether or not that’s going to happen anytime soon. We could find no Legislation in the last couple of years that would move to allow for online casino games; the Tribal casinos probably would try to fight it anyway.

Actually, if Arizona ever did allow for Commercial Online Casinos, then the Tribes would automatically be permitted to offer their own pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which allows them to automatically offer anything that a state offers commercially. This is something that we see come into play in states such as Michigan.

ARKANSAS

• Regulated Online Casinos: No
• Regulated Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Gambling Online Illegal: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Arkansas is a bit of a surprise state when it comes to their legalization and regulation of online sportsbooks, as we would have considered them one of the more restrictive states prior to that.

However, they remain pretty restrictive when it comes to online casino-style gambling. Arkansas law states, “Any money or property may be won.,” in their definition of Gambling and makes it illegal to gamble in any fashion that has not been specifically authorized by the state. Because online casino games are not specifically authorized by the state, online gambling on casino games (or poker) is illegal.

Per the usual, we could find no instance of a player ever being prosecuted for gambling online. Illegal operators, however, would just be begging for trouble.

Similar to other states with no real Commercial Casinos, (they do allow for some Class II Electronic Bingo type games) the State of Arkansas regulates retail and online sports betting through their lottery. There was also a bill introduced in 2022 to authorize and regulate online casinos, but that bill never made it out of committee.

It would be interesting if Arkansas became the first state that had legal online casino-style gambling without having the full spectrum of land-based casino gambling. We suppose that’s technically possible and would likely also go through the Lottery department.

Of course, 51% of sports betting revenues are taxed, as opposed to the 5-15% in other states, so we do not expect Arkansas to attract very many operators; it presently has only one.

CALIFORNIA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Online Gambling Illegal: No (At the state level)
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

California state law is interesting in that it does not make it illegal for players to gamble online; however, the state law does make it possible for lesser jurisdictions, such as cities or counties, to have their own laws in that regard. While we would be shocked if any player were ever prosecuted, anywhere, just for playing online, we guess we should technically recommend to check your local code if you are very concerned with the legality.

In the meantime, we wouldn’t expect any form of online gambling to come to fruition in California anytime soon, at least, not if it goes to public vote. Cal Matters reports that the question of legal online sports betting went to a public vote and was rejected, 83%-17%. We have no idea why Californians would be so concerned with restricting what other people may or may not do as, without getting into too much detail, they seem to be all about letting people do whatever they want in any number of other ways.

Californians also did not want for the state to legalize retail (in-person) sports betting, either. That vote was a bit closer and would see Tribal Casinos and the state’s horse racing tracks be told that they may not offer sports betting by a vote of 70%-30%.

We have no idea why it doesn’t occur to some of these voters that just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that they actually have to do it.

Of course, the article linked above reports that one tribe altruistically suggested that they get all of the sports betting action for themselves:

But there’s another group of tribes, including the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, that had proposed a third sports betting legalization measure. Their measure would have allowed tribes to offer in person and online sports betting exclusively. It didn’t make it on to the 2022 ballot and recently failed to gather enough signatures to make it onto the 2024 ballot as well — but that doesn’t mean the idea is off the table.

“Our group feels that [measure] is the best path forward for online sports wagering in California,” said Roger Salazar, a spokesperson for a coalition that campaigned against Prop. 27 and includes those tribes.

The suggestion that one group of tribes effectively get a monopoly on sports betting in the entire state, unsurprisingly, did not receive enough signatures to go to a public vote.

We have no idea when, if ever, the state will get online sports betting and casino-style gaming, but for the time being, it’s probably not going to be anytime soon if it is left up to the public.

COLORADO

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Gambling Online Illegal: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Colorado seems to be a pretty liberal state when it comes to gambling. Blackhawk is home to the state’s Commercial Casinos and is the only town permitted to have land-based casinos, making it similar to Atlantic City, New Jersey and Deadwood, South Dakota.

The state was also liberal enough on gambling to recently allow for regulated online sports betting, which doesn’t come as a huge surprise.

In terms of casino-style games, state law makes it illegal for players to play those online:

The State of Colorado dictates that anti-gambling laws be construed, “Liberally,” and other than Social Gambling or Gambling authorized by the State, any other form of gambling (as a player) is a petty offense that could result in a fine. Gambling constitutes a Class 1 Petty Offense. The Colorado Department of Revenue site makes this clear.

The Department of Revenue seems to construe the laws VERY liberally; the site is hilarious, in fact. First of all, the Department of Revenue site specifically declares all online gambling to be illegal, which can’t possibly be true, because the State of Colorado itself has regulated online sports books. The second thing that makes the website hilarious is that it states that there are laws that make it illegal to play online at the federal level, which has never been true.

The Department of Revenue states:

Internet gambling is illegal under state and federal laws. Colorado law prohibits the transmission or reception of gambling information by any means. The federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, signed into law in October 2006, prohibits online gamblers from using credit cards, checks and electronic fund transfers to place and settle bets. Further, the federal 1961 Wire Act also prohibits the use of wire communications in interstate or foreign commerce for the placing of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers.

Pretty much everything about that is wrong, except the last statement, which is still a bit of a stretch. We don’t know why the Department of Revenue would care so much about this issue, after all, any revenues that they aren’t getting by taxing online casinos’ revenues are entirely the state’s fault for not regulating online gambling, but it seems they care enough to lie about it. The UIGEA doesn’t make it illegal for gamblers to do anything; it makes it illegal for financial institutions in the United States to knowingly transact with online casinos.

Colorado law also cannot prohibit the transmission and reception of gambling information because it is something that Colorado specifically allows for on their online sportsbooks!

Ultimately, Unlawful Gambling appears to be a Petty Offense in the state, which is basically a nothing charge. More than that, we could uncover no instance of anyone being prosecuted for merely playing at an internet casino.

CONNECTICUT

• Online Casinos: (Yes, there are two)
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Connecticut is a state where pretty much anything goes when it comes to gambling, though you’ll have to go to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun if you’re looking for a land casino. The good news is that the state is not particularly large, so it shouldn’t take you too long to get there.

Older pages we have written would have said it was a Class B Misdemeanor to gamble online in Connecticut, but we no longer believe that is true. The reason why is because state law made any form of unauthorized gambling illegal, but state law has changed such that there are both sportsbooks as well as online casino-style sites, both of the latter type of sites to be offered only by the Connecticut Tribal Casinos.

Obviously, you could not operate an online casino out of the state, but our conclusion based on the fact that these forms of gambling are legal is that you could play wherever you want to as long as the operator does not restrict Connecticut, specifically, or the United States, as a whole.

In terms of the regulated casino operators, those are DraftKings and Fanduel, but you will probably burn through your new player bonuses quickly. After you do, if you’re looking for somewhere else to play, then feel free to check out our selected casinos above.

DELAWARE

• Online Casinos: Yes (There’s Only One)
• Online Sportsbooks: Legal, but there aren’t any as of 01/2023
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Delaware law and regulation allows for both online casinos as well as online sportsbooks, though the state is home to only one online casino and zero online sportsbooks as of January, 2023. We will try to update this page if that changes. In terms of legality, quoting from Wizard of Odds:

Regulated online gambling is legal in Delaware, and nothing in that bill would tend to make it appear illegal to play at unregulated sites. However, it is illegal under Delaware law to own a, ‘Gambling Device,’ and is a Class A Misdemeanor. On the other hand, if they wanted to extend the definition of, ‘Gambling Device,’ to be a computer, then you could not play at their regulated sites which are definitely legal!

We imagine that the state would prefer that you play at places regulated by them, that’s how they turn some player losses into tax revenue, after all, but we do not believe that it is illegal to gamble elsewhere. That’s especially good news for Delaware residents as you presently have only one online casino and zero online sportsbooks, though sportsbooks could theoretically come to the state at anytime.

For these reasons, for playing at unregulated entities to be illegal, we should imagine the state would have to create a law that specifically says that. Generally speaking, state laws go into detail on what forms of gambling are illegal, which forms are not and then state that any form of gambling not authorized by the state is illegal. Online gambling and sports betting is authorized by Delaware, so we assume it’s legal for you to do so.

Of course, even when it was not legal to play online, we could find no instance of anyone ever having been prosecuted for doing so.

Delaware has only one online casino, which is a site shared by all three of the land casinos within the state. Delaware state law also has it that a sportsbook would have to have ties to a land casino in order to legally operate there, so the fact that the three casinos already share a site for online casino games would make it tough for a different operator to want to come in and offer only sports to a state with such a small population. In our opinion, Delaware would have probably been better off to make online sports betting regulation a function of the lottery who could then oversee a single site (and get a high percentage of revenues) the way New Hampshire did with DraftKings.

FLORIDA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No (Currently in litigation as of January, 2023)
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Florida has a few regulated forms of gambling, such as Charitable Gambling and State Lottery, and state law makes it a Class B Misdemeanor to engage in any unregulated form of gambling within the state.

The Seminole State, it should come as no surprise, is also home to a few Tribal Casinos as well as race tracks, Jai-Alai outlets and Commercial Racinos. The Tribal Casinos are the relevant party to the litigation that is related to online sports betting within the state.

The Seminole Tribe came to a deal with Florida Governor Ron DeSanctis that would allow them to offer online sports betting by way of the tribal compact with the state. However, there are a number of potential legal problems with that, according to Click Orlando:

“It was so obvious from the outset that this compact violated federal law,” Wallach said. “It’s called the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), and it governs the conduct of gaming on Indian lands and nowhere else.”

The 30-year compact, which was announced by the governor last year, essentially gave the tribe control over Florida’s gambling kingdom, but Wallach said the deal exceeded the boundaries of what’s allowed under IGRA by including online sports gaming.

The central issue is where is the gambling actually being conducted? There are a few different states, which we will detail later, that allow for Tribal Casinos to offer online sports betting, but you actually have to be on the physical property of the Tribe to access the websites.

The naysayers see the issue as the Seminole Tribe, via the Internet, being able to offer sports betting anywhere in the state of Florida, whereas the IGRA should only apply to physical property owned by the Tribe(s) and considered sovereign. Those who are in favor of the online sports betting argue that the servers are located on Tribal land, therefore, the tribes have the right to offer the websites to residents of the state as long as the Governor is fine with it.

Residents will just have to wait and see, or perhaps, some other form of online sports betting will be legalized and regulated in the future.

With that, all forms of online gambling are technically illegal for players to partake in; however, we could find no instance of anyone actually being prosecuted for playing online.

GEORGIA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

Georgia has historically been a very restrictive state when it comes to most forms of gambling; the state has only specifically legalized the State Lottery, certain Skill Games and certain forms of Charitable Gambling, such as Bingo and Pull Tabs.

The language of Georgia law, as would theoretically apply to players,“Any slot machine, simulations or variation thereof,” and, “Any video game machine or device, operated for any consideration, for the game of poker, Blackjack, any other card game or Keno…..etc.”

Without directly saying, “Online Gambling,” it is pretty clear that, “Simulation thereof,” is referring to just that. Even with that being the case, we have never heard of any instance in which a player was prosecuted for merely playing at an internet casino.

CBS Sports has given brief descriptions on the state of sports betting legalization in all of the U.S. states, and while it would appear that legislation to authorize sports betting has been introduced in Georgia, it has never actually gone to a vote.

We think it’s unlikely that Georgia will get online casino-style gambling even within the next five years. For one thing, they don’t even have any Commercial Casinos at this time. We suppose that it’s possible for a state to have online casino-style gambling, but not land-based Commercial Casinos, but it certainly hasn’t happened yet.

Sports betting is likely a bit more promising, however, as it could be run through the State Lottery, as we see in a few other states around the country. It’s hard to say when that will happen, especially since it has yet to even make it to a vote in the Legislature, but we suspect probably within the next five years.

HAWAII

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

Along with Utah, Hawaii is one of the only two states to have no legalized form of gambling whatsoever. We would suggest that Hawaii is slightly less strict than Utah, however, because Utah actually took the time to specifically make a law that says online gambling is also illegal.

In both states, however, the law would have extended to include online gambling anyway. Here are the relevant Hawaii definitions on gambling:

4) “Gambling. A person engages in gambling if he stakes or risks something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under his control or influence, upon an agreement or understanding that he or someone else will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome. Gambling does not include bona fide business transactions valid under the law of contracts, including but not limited to contracts for the purchase or sale at a future date of securities or commodities, and agreements to compensate for loss caused by the happening of chance, including but not limited to contracts of indemnity or guaranty and life, health, or accident insurance.”

(5) “Gambling device means any device, machine, paraphernalia, or equipment that is used or usable in the playing phases of any gambling activity, whether that activity consists of gambling between persons or gambling by a person involving the playing of a machine.”

Given the wording of the law, we would suggest that it covers online gambling, even if it does not specifically say online gambling.

Naturally, we could find no instance of an individual player ever facing legal action for playing online in the Aloha State and suspect such has never happened.

According to Honolulu Civil Beat, there have been some quiet moves to introduce Legislation that would allow for any form of gambling you could ever think of, but all such bills proposed die Legislative deaths without ever being voted upon.

Fortunately, there are a number of online casinos that will offer their games to residents of Hawaii, so if you’re interested in playing, please check out our top recommendations for you by hitting the link to your state above.

IDAHO

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

Idaho law makes it pretty clear that all forms of gambling, other than those that have been specifically authorized by the state, are illegal. Participating in gambling constitutes a Misdemeanor in the state of Idaho.

As ever, we could find no instance of anyone in Idaho actually being prosecuted for playing at an offshore Internet casino and we suspect that it has never happened.

We have seen attempted Legislation to allow for, at least, sports betting die Legislative deaths in states such as Hawaii and Georgia, but according to The Idaho Statesman, their Legislature has yet to even introduce a bill:

Many other states had a similar blanket ban on gambling, which they amended after lawmakers introduced bills in the House or the Senate. However, no legislators in Idaho have ever introduced a sports betting bill, and there seems to be very little appetite for it.

The state has a fairly limited population and tends to be highly conservative, so those hoping for online sports betting to come in are probably going to be waiting for some years and it would be a huge surprise if online casino-style games ever become regulated by the state.

If ever Idaho did authorize sportsbooks, we think they would do well to come up with a deal similar to New Hampshire’s agreement with DraftKings such that they would give one online outlet exclusivity and take a high percentage of the revenues. In the meantime, should you decide to check out one of the online casinos that offer their games to your state’s residents, we seriously doubt anything would come of it.

ILLINOIS

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Illinois has a blanket state law when it comes to unauthorized gambling which concerns playing a game, “Of chance or skill for money or other thing of value,” and makes it a Misdemeanor to do so unless you are playing a game that has specifically been authorized by the state.

With that said, we could find no instance of a player ever facing adverse legal action for playing at an online casino. They also tried to introduce a bill several years ago, for reasons unknown, that would specifically make online gambling illegal, even though the law already technically does that.

Illinois was one of the states to jump on allowing both online and retail sports betting fairly quickly, and despite their seeming reluctance to spread to online casino-style gambling, the state has had a fairly liberal attitude towards gambling in its history. For one thing, the Land of Lincoln, is one of only a few states to allow for, “Parlors,” which are locations home to only a few Limited Video Lottery Terminals.

According to Illinois Policy, the Legislative Branch of the state government is taking a close look at how much money online casino-style gambling could bring the state. It might have come as a surprise to them, but you will be unsurprised to know that the answer is, “A lot of friggin’ money,” so combining that with their general looseness on gambling policy would make us think it won’t be too long before online casino games are authorized. The good news is that implementation would be fairly quick as most of the online sportsbook operators in the state already operate online casinos elsewhere.

INDIANA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

By the letter of the law, what we have found is that it’s not specifically illegal to play at an offshore site; the problem is more that whatever device you are using to play would technically become an unregulated gambling device-which is illegal to possess.

In any event, we have found no instance of anyone being prosecuted as having an unlawful gambling device as a result of playing online; naturally, the lack of any prosecutions under that law does not surprise us at all.

In the meantime, Indiana was one of the states to regulate online sports betting, as well as retail sportsbooks in the state’s Commercial Casinos fairly early on. Of course, The Hoosier State has historically had a fairly laissez-faire attitude towards the subject of gambling and has allowed for casinos that are technically, “Riverboats,” for a long time.

In the meantime, Inside Indiana would have it that expanding regulated online offerings to include casino-style games has been proposed. The article goes on to state that this expansion could also potentially include poker. The state’s lawmakers are presently looking at what sort of revenue that might bring the state (SPOILER: A ton), so we would expect such a bill to get voted upon sooner than later, though they might surprise us.

Nearby states, such as Michigan, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, already have regulated casino-style gaming websites, so that might also play a factor in such expanding to Indiana as the Midwest and Northeast parts of the country seem to be the only ones really doing that on a Commercial basis.

None of the bills to do that have made it out of committee as of the (January, 2023) time of this writing, but it’s possible that such a bill will go to vote as early as this year.

IOWA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes (Sometimes Felonious)
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

In the State of Iowa, they have the strictest laws on the books when it comes to unlawful gambling, which is a word they define as to, “Make any bet.” The Hawkeye State would have it that gambling unlawfully could potentially constitute a felony, though whether or not it is felonious depends exclusively on the amounts of money involved.

Of course, in terms of actual enforcement, we have uncovered no instance of anyone being prosecuted in Iowa for the mere act of playing online. Naturally, they would go after operators very quickly, but we would be surprised if they ever prosecuted mere players. Of course, the fact that such play could be a felony might want to be something to think about if you live there and are thinking about playing.

Even with that, the state was one of the early ones on board to expand regulated gambling to include both retail and online sportsbooks.

However, that might not indicate a change of directions when it comes to online casino-style gambling. According to KTVO, the state has put a two-year moratorium on the licensing of new Commercial Casinos, so that would lead us to believe that they are quite content to keep things where they are right now, so those hoping for regulated casino-style gaming will probably have to continue to wait. We couldn’t imagine that they would authorize online casino-style games, or poker, in the duration that there is a moratorium on new physical casino licensing.

With that, we would think it’s going to be three years, at an absolute minimum, before the state authorizes Commercial online casinos. Fortunately, if you are looking to play, there are a great number of offshore casinos offering their services in your state, please feel free to click your state’s link above to see the ones we recommend.

KANSAS

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Kansas is another one of those surprising states that are generally viewed as being sort of Christian Conservative, such as Montana, West Virginia and Indiana (as well as others) that is surprisingly non-restrictive when it comes to most forms of gambling.

In addition to the fact that the Sunflower State is home to land-based Commercial Casinos, Kansas was also one of the early states to allow for both online and retail (in physical casinos) sports betting.

In terms of casino-style gambling, we determine that it is illegal in Kansas to make, “A bet,” in any way that is not specifically authorized by the state. Even with that being the case, we could find no instance of any player being prosecuted for the mere act of playing at an online casino.

According to the Kansas Reflector, no version of any bill that proposed regulated sports betting mentioned online casino games, or poker, anywhere at all. On that note, they cited at least one Kansan politician who is unhappy with the fact that there’s even sports betting:

“Those 65,000 gambling addicts in this state, we’re selling them out. That’s like dropping a bomb on those 65,000 families,” said Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican who said he’d never bought a lottery ticket. “We have created this monster.”

Given that, an attitude we suspect other state politicians mirror, we think it will be quite some time, if ever, before they go full hog and decide to allow for online casino-style games. If betting sports isn’t your thing, then feel free to click the above link for more details on the state’s gambling laws as well as links to some of our top recommendations.

KENTUCKY

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

The Bluegrass State does not authorize very much when it comes to regulated forms of gambling, but there does not appear to be anything in their laws that would prohibit the state’s residents from playing wherever they might want to. Feel free to follow the link in this paragraph to find some of our top picks for your state.

Saturday Down South reports that there was recently a bill to allow for both online and retail sports betting (the latter would be at the state’s race tracks) that based in the Kentucky House, but failed in the state’s Senate. Quoting:

“I think it’s a natural extension of our long history and tradition of betting pari-mutuelly on horses, which is a form of sports betting in my opinion. But there’s still a lot of anti-gambling sentiment in this building,” Thayer said.

The Kentucky House of Representatives approved its sports betting bill by a vote of 58-30 last week. Rep. Adam Koenig’s (R-Erlanger) bill, HB 606, will now move to the Kentucky Senate. If approved by the Senate, it would then go to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear for his signature before it becomes law.

When we say, “Failed in the Senate,” we don’t mean that it was voted upon and lost; in spite of the extremely safe margin by which the bill succeeded in the House, the Senate did not hold a vote on the proposal. I guess residents of the state might have to wait and see what comes in 2023, or they may have to wait even longer than that.

As far as online casinos are concerned, we would be surprised if there is even a bill proposed in the next several years and would expect it to fail even if there was. For one reason or another, the state seems fairly strongly opposed to all forms of casino-style gambling.

LOUISIANA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The Bayou State is home to casinos of all types including land-based Commercial Casinos, Riverboat Casinos, Commercial Racinos and Native American Casinos. For that reason, the state’s residents would have plenty of outlets to choose from even if an online casino had to be tied to a land-based entity, but the state has yet to allow for regulated online casino-style gaming.

In the meantime, Louisiana was one of the early states to jump on legalized sports betting, which can take place either in-person or online.

When it comes to online casino-style gambling, the letter of the law is pretty clear, “Whoever commits the crime of Gambling by Computer shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both.”

As you can see, the law specifically references playing, ‘By computer,’ so I guess playing at mobile offshore websites is perfectly fine. (This is a joke)

In any event, we could find no instance of any players actually being prosecuted for the crime of playing by computer and it would surprise us if any such prosecutions ever occur.

We can find no evidence of any Legislation being proposed to allow for online gambling in recent years, so those folks wanting to play a little Blackjack at a regulated entity might be left wanting for a few years, assuming it ever happens at all. Of course, if any such Legislation ever does get passed, then it would be easy for online casinos to come into the state as all of the state’s online sportsbooks operate online casinos already in other states where they can legally do so.

MAINE

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Legal (But, There Aren’t Any as of January, 2023)
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

What we have found in Maine is that, “Unlawful Gambling,” is technically a crime, pursuant to statute, but it is a crime that does not actually have any penalties attached to it. If there are no penalties associated with the act, then for all practical purposes, it is not illegal. Even if it were, we doubt authorities would care and can certainly find no instance of anyone ever being prosecuted for playing online.

According to the Press Herald, Maine has passed a law allowing for online sportsbooks to come into the state; those books will be taxed at a rate of 25% of revenues. It is perhaps due to the high tax that no operators have entered into the state yet, so while it is legal, there are actually no websites operating there as of the time of this writing.

We tend to think that the online sports betting sites do not want to indicate that they will acquiesce to a tax rate of 25% as the tax rate in most other states is much lower. Maine is also not well-populated, so sportsbooks are not going to want to signal that they are willing to put up with such a high tax just to get a few customers.

Granted, New Hampshire has a tax rate of 50% of sports betting revenues, but the difference there is that they gave DraftKings exclusivity for a few years. If Maine changes the law and offers DraftKings the same deal they are getting in New Hampshire, then we suspect that there is a very good chance DK would accept, and if not, some other operator (such as Fanduel) probably would.

Quoting from the article linked above:

Champion estimates the state’s annual cut of sports betting – set in the law at 10 percent of gross revenues after payouts to bettors – will be $3.8 million to $6 million. The tribes would get 50 percent or more of the online revenues, with “providers” such as Draft Kings or FanDuel receiving up to 30-40 percent for hosting mobile apps where bettors place wagers. In addition, 0.25 percent of the gross revenue will go toward federal taxes.

This model that would have the online sportsbooks work through the Tribal Casinos is an even bigger cut than the New Hampshire exclusivity model. As you can see above, the sportsbooks would only be getting 30-40% of the revenues, so it would be very surprising if any of them were willing to tolerate that, especially if they are not going to be given exclusivity.

The article also indicates that, even if sportsbooks do come into the state, they probably won’t actually go live until 2024. We couldn’t even guess as to the reasons for that as the books, on their end, could probably be ready to launch within mere days if they were allowed to do so…and not paying such a prohibitive cut of their revenues.

Maine seems to get along really well with its Tribal Casino operators, so we would expect for online casino-style gambling to become regulated, with websites that will also have ties to a land-based Native American casino in the state, to go live within the next several years.

MARYLAND

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Maryland is another one of several states to allow for both in-person and online sports betting. The latter form of sports betting kicked off in the Baltimore area, but is now available to the entire state.

We expect that online casino-style games being regulated is an eventuality and will probably come to fruition within the next three years. Our reason for giving this opinion is that several states near Maryland, or bordering Maryland, such as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey (as well as others) already have online casinos regulated. With so many nearby states offering the product, we expect that the Maryland state government will also want to get a cut of the would-be casino revenues.

Our original interpretation of Maryland’s law was based on laws prohibiting an individual from having a, “Gambling device,” which would have made a phone or computer a gambling device prior to the legalization of any form of online wagering. However, sportsbooks are now licensed and regulated within the state, so we must come to the conclusion that phones and computers could no longer be considered unlawful gambling devices, thus, gambling on online casino-style games is not illegal.

Of course, even when it could have been considered illegal, we could uncover no instance of anyone ever being prosecuted on the grounds of possessing an illegal gambling device as a result of the fact that they were playing online.

Another reason that we think online casino-style gambling will eventually become regulated in the state is because the state already has several land-based casinos. Basically, Maryland has everything that states such as New Jersey, West Virginia and Pennsylvania do, except only online casino-style games and poker.

MASSACHUSETTS

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes, Technically
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The Codfish State is another example of a state that adopted regulated retail and online sportsbooks at the earliest opportunity. However, as of the time of this writing, they have not regulated online casino-style gambling or poker.

When it comes to online poker and casino-style games, the state does have a law against any form of gambling that has not specifically been authorized by the state, but it only calls for a fine in the event that you win. The way state law works is that a player, in theory, could be fined up to double the amount won in the event they win five, or more, dollars. Naturally, we have never heard of such a thing ever happening when it comes to online casino play.

NBC Boston reports that Massachusetts passed legislation in November of 2022 that would allow for online sportsbooks, so those entities are still getting their licensing in order and getting ready to launch as of the January, 2023 time of this writing.

One aspect that makes Massachusetts different from other states is that most other states with online casinos or sportsbooks require that the operators have some ties to a land casino in the state. In contrast to this, Massachusetts also has that requirement for some, but has also decided to create seven mobile-only licenses, of which only six had been applied for at the time the NBC Boston page was written. Quoting:

The six companies that applied by Monday’s deadline are: Bally Bet, Betr, Betway (DGC USA), DraftKings, FanDuel, and PointsBet. One mobile betting company, bet365, filed an application to eventually partner with Raynham Park, which was not subject to Monday’s deadline.

In addition to the six mobile-only licenses, nine other sportsbook licenses had been applied for at the time of the NBC writing. Each applicant had to submit a non-refundable $200,000 application fee; with that, the state had already brought three million dollars of revenue in before even a single bet had been placed!

We would be remiss not to encourage residents of the state to look for these sites to launch throughout this year as the promotions should be very strong for new players given how much competition there will be in the state. This writer is not sure that there are fifteen sportsbooks in any other state.

It would seem like Massachusetts is fairly open to online betting as they are the only state that we know of (with land-based casinos) to offer mobile-only sports betting licenses. Because of that, and because of all of the revenues that they will see flowing into other states by way of online casino-style gaming products, we would expect Massachusetts to regulate online casino-style games, and probably poker, sooner rather than later.

MICHIGAN

• Online Casinos: Yes
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Play Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The Great Lake State has a history of being extremely liberal when it comes to the means by which residents may gamble. In addition to the fact that they have long been home to both Commercial and Native American casinos, the state has recently added retail sports wagering, online sports betting and online casino-style games to the state’s repertoire. They were also one of the state parties to the suit that went to SCOTUS to get PASPA overturned.

The state law on Unlawful wagering was such that residents of the state could not wager in ways that were not authorized by the government, but both online sports and casino now are, so we would assume that it would not be illegal for a player to play at an offshore online casino.

MINNESOTA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No (They’re Working on It)
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, it is technically unlawful to, “Make a bet,” in any way other than those which have been authorized by the state, but that player-focused law does not actually carry any penalties; that fact renders it effectively legal to play online in the capacity of a player. There are more strict laws when it comes to unlawful gambling, but all of those are focused on operators as opposed to players.

Even if there were a penalty associated with the act, we could find no instance of anyone being prosecuted for merely playing at an online casino while in the State of Minnesota.

According to Total Packers, there was a recent bill that would have made it lawful for Native American casinos to not only conduct in-person sports betting, but also, to link up with online operators so that they could also offer sports betting to people across the state.

And…while you might think the tribes would have been in favor of that bill, you would think wrong. This is the opposite of the problem in Florida where state and commercial interests are upset about the possibility of the Seminole Tribe having an effective monopoly on online sports betting, in the case of Minnesota, the tribes seem unwilling to accept anything other than a Tribal monopoly on that form of gaming.

In addition to the current version of the bill extending those means of sports betting to the Native American casinos, you see, it would also apply to the state’s Commercial racetracks for both land-based betting, as well as online, which is the aspect that the tribes oppose. Hopefully, some sort of agreement can be reached that makes all parties happy; perhaps the best thing to do would be to allow the Commercial racetracks to have in-person betting only and give the Native American casinos exclusive online rights.

MISSISSIPPI

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes (And, Not Really)
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

In the Magnolia State, there exists a law that would prohibit players from doing any form of wagering other than those which have been specifically authorized by the state Government. The penalty for violating the law, for players, is a fine of up to $500 and a prison sentence of up to ninety days if the fine is not paid.

Of course, we were unable to uncover any instance of anyone being penalized under this statute for the mere act of playing at an offshore online casino.

Otherwise, Mississippi is pretty middle of the road when it comes to gambling allowances. The state is, after all, home to several Commercial Casinos and recently started a state lottery. Additionally, they have now authorized and regulate sports betting for both in-person and online wagering…sort of.

The caveat for the online wagering is the fact that the person must be geolocated as being on the property of one of the state’s casinos in order to be allowed to wager online. Essentially, this makes the ability to wager online only useful if the physical book is closed, there is a long line or you just don’t feel like coming down from your hotel room.

For that reason, it should come as no surprise that there is only one online sportsbook in the state, which is BetMGM. It’s tied to an MGM-owned casino, so they probably implemented an online version for convenience as it would have cost them near nothing to do so.

We do not expect that online casino-style gambling, or poker, will be regulated in the state anytime soon. Even if such does become legal, we would imagine that it will follow a similar law of only being permitted on the property of a land-based casino in the state.

There have been bills introduced, such as this, to expand online wagering to the entire state, but no such bills have even made it to a vote as yet.

MISSOURI

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The Show Me State had an identical gambling profile to neighboring Kansas until the latter regulated both physical and online sports betting. In that sense, Missouri has fallen behind a little bit in that they are still working to maybe get online sports betting passed.

In the meantime, any form of gambling that is not specifically authorized by the state is technically illegal, though we have never uncovered an instance of anyone actually being prosecuted for merely playing at an offshore Internet casino.

Fox reports that there was a bill proposed that would allow for both retail and online sports betting in the state, but that bill died a Legislative death without ever going to a vote. For that reason, the earliest it would even be possible for Show Me State residents to be able to place sports bets at a regulated book would be late-2023, and that’s probably highly optimistic.

We do not expect that the state will authorize and regulate online casino-style gambling at any point in the near future because they’re having a tough time just getting sports betting to go to a vote. That aside, other than their, “Riverboat,” casinos…which are usually just buildings on concrete slabs technically on the Missouri or Mississippi rivers, they seem generally opposed to expanding their gambling offerings. In fact, the state had a law in place restricting the maximum bet on any casino game to $5 and also restricted how much an individual could lose in a day for a very long time.

Our position is that they might need to actually break this bill up into two different bills and try to get retail sports betting done separately. It is our position that is more likely to pass than is an online sports betting bill, which we expect will eventually pass, but perhaps not anytime particularly soon.

MONTANA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes (Technically)
• Illegal to gamble Online: Yes (Potential Felony)
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

The Treasure State is an interesting one when it comes to gambling because it is generally unrestrictive, but it doesn’t seem particularly keen on online forms of wagering just yet. Similar to West Virginia, Montana is one of the few states with Commercial Gaming outlets, which they do call, “Casinos,” (West Virginia Limited VLT locations are not allowed to use that word) where you can find businesses with Video Lottery Terminals just about anywhere. In fact, it would be borderline unusual to walk into a bar in the state and not see any machines.

We would think that an openness to that sort of Convenience Gambling would extend itself to a liberality in terms of online gambling, but it doesn’t. In fact, there is a standing state law that describes unlawful gambling and lists the penalties, which states:

“A person who in an activity involving gambling offers or obtains money, property, or anything of value that does not exceed $750 in value by misrepresentation, fraud, or the use of an illegal gambling device or an illegal gambling enterprise is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable as provided in 23-5-161.” If it is over $750, the language is the same and it is a felony punishable by 23-5-162.

The Misdemeanor shall result in a fine of no more than $500 for a first offense, up to six months in County Jail or a fine up to $1,000, or both, for a second offense within five years, a fine of up to $10,000 or up to a year in County Jail, or both for a third offense within five years, and for a fourth offense a fine of up to $10,000 and imprisonment for up to 1 year or both.”

In that case, it would probably be best to avoid winning or losing more than $750 in a day, just in case. On the other hand, we could find no instance of anyone being prosecuted under this statute for the mere act of playing at an online casino.

Retail sportsbooks have been made legal in the state within the last few years, but there aren’t very many of them. Online sportsbooks are also, technically, legal…but similar to Mississippi, you must be geolocated to be within close vicinity of one of the physical shops to actually be able to make a bet online. Other than getting there when the physical shop is closed, or in the event of a very long line, the restriction almost defeats the purpose of allowing online betting in the first place.

The state’s Governor had the option to sign a version of the sports betting bill (that also made it to his desk) that would have allowed for individuals to make online wagers from anywhere in the state, but he did not opt to sign that one. Instead, he passed the more restrictive version of the bill. He’s also got at least another two years in office, so we would not expect for statewide sports betting or online casino-style gambling to become a reality anytime in the near future.

NEBRASKA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The Cornhusker State tends to be highly conservative and very deliberate when it comes to any form of gambling expansion. It’s also a fairly religious state, so we should assume that there are religious elements in the state Government that would lead to a more conservative outlook when it comes to gambling regulation, or lack thereof.

Nebraska is a state that also has a clear law stating that it is illegal to gamble in any fashion that has not been authorized by the state. In their case, betting less than $500/day, as a player, could theoretically result in a Class IV Misdemeanor. In the event that you bet $500+ in a single day, however, the crime becomes something that the state calls, “Promotion of Gambling,” and rises to the level of being a Class II Misdemeanor.

There is also a part of the code that can make Promotion of Gambling a Class I Misdemeanor, but that would only apply to people operating the games. We should also note that the law states that it doesn’t matter if the gambling is legal, “On the other side,” of the transaction, which we take to mean as them specifically making it illegal for players to play online.

As always, we could find no instance of anyone being prosecuted in the state due merely to playing at an online casino in the capacity of a player.

With that, it comes as a bit of a surprise, according to KETV, the state has made retail sports betting legal. The government, however, went to great lengths to point out that online wagering is definitely still illegal, even including on the property of a place with a legal sportsbook.

For that reason, we do not expect that either regulated online sports betting, much less regulated Internet casinos, will become a reality anytime in the near future.

NEVADA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes (And Poker)
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

It might come as a surprise that online casino-style gambling, even as a player, is technically illegal in The Silver State, but it’s true. Nevada state law makes it illegal to either receive or transmit information in the making of a bet in any way that is not specifically authorized by the state, which would include online casino-style games.

Of course, Nevadans are certainly not wanting for places to gamble as there are casinos, essentially, in every single town in the state. In fact, there are a few small towns dotting the landscape that only exist because casinos opened there. It makes sense that Nevada would want to keep the money flowing through physical casinos rather than sending players online; besides, the state takes an extremely small cut of live casino revenues compared to other states.

Naturally, we could find no instance of anyone actually being prosecuted just for playing at an online casino; however, there are quite a few offshore online casinos that will not offer their services in Nevada, so make sure to check the Terms and Conditions before attempting to sign up.

Nevada is the original home of a lot of things, from land-based legal casinos to online poker to online sportsbooks and even, arguably, to Convenience Gambling. The state has licenses that it issues to small operators, so as a result, you will see many bars and stores with a handful of machines in several locations throughout the state.

We would argue that Nevadans may not really have a need for online casinos, at least not most Nevadans, as the vast majority of them are within spitting distance of somewhere they can gamble. Online casinos make more sense in a state such as New Jersey as Commercial Casinos are only located in Atlantic City there.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes, DraftKings
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes and No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Gambling online in New Hampshire is not illegal if you are gambling at a sportsbook, whether that be the in-state operator, DraftKings, or at an offshore sportsbook. The reason why is because the unlawful gambling laws are based on whether or not the state has authorized the type of gambling being done. When it comes to sports betting, the state has allowed for that; when it comes to casino-style games, the state has not.

Therefore, gambling on online poker or casino-style games would still constitute Unlawful Gambling. However, we have found no instance of anyone being prosecuted for doing this in the capacity of a player. We suspect that law enforcement would have no way to know and probably wouldn’t care, even if they did know.

In the meantime, the state is home to a single regulated sportsbook, DraftKings. New Hampshire, through the New Hampshire State Lottery, came to an exclusivity deal with DraftKings by which the state gets 50% of all sports betting revenues, in exchange, DraftKings is the only licensed operator in the state for a period of six years, which began in 2020.

Honestly, we think this was a really smart deal for a state this size; Maine should consider doing something similar. Given the limited population of New Hampshire, there’s really no great benefit in players having a ton of sportsbooks to choose from, and even if they did, sportsbooks aren’t going to bother to operate in the state if they feel the state’s cut is too high and would have a ton of competition for a small amount of customers anyway, as we see in Maine. Instead, the state allows for only one sportsbook and gets a huge cut of the proceeds.

We don’t expect that New Hampshire would authorize for online casino-style gambling anytime in the near future, but in the event that they surprise us, DraftKings already operates a casino product in a few other states, so they could get it going pretty quickly.

NEW JERSEY

• Online Casinos: Yes
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

PASPA is technically unrelated to online casino-style gaming products, but even so, New Jersey was one of only a few states to allow for Internet Casino Gaming even prior to the Supreme Court’s overturning of PASPA.

Of course, The Garden State led the charge to get PASPA overturned, so it comes as no surprise that they were very quick to allow for both retail and online sports betting as they had a law that would immediately take effect upon the SCOTUS overturning, and, dare I say correcting, what was once a gross overreach by the Federal Government.

Naturally, there are laws against operating an online casino in the Garden State, other than those which have been licensed (and must go through one of the land-based Commercial Casinos), but we could find no law in the state that would make it illegal for players to play online anywhere they wish, whether or not the online entity is a licensed operator.

There’s really nothing else to say about New Jersey; if there’s a way to gamble, then it is probably legal. The one thing that some state residents might prefer is if land-based gambling were not restricted to Atlantic City, but the most recent vote to expand land-based casinos was a few years ago and failed pretty soundly.

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NEW MEXICO

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

At this time, New Mexico does not have any regulated online casinos or sportsbooks. Generally speaking, residents of the state have quite a few gaming options, but that’s only because there are quite a few Native American casinos in the state. Given that there are no Commercial Casinos, any potential regulation of online play would probably see the websites operating through the Native American casinos.

In the meantime, New Mexico law defines gambling simply as, “Making a bet,” and makes it a Misdemeanor to do so in any way that has not specifically been authorized by the state. By extension, that technically makes it illegal to play online, but we have uncovered no instance of anyone actually being prosecuted for doing so.

The only sports betting to be found in the state, as of this writing, is retail (in-person) sports betting in the state’s Tribal Casinos. In those, sportsbooks operate on the basis of being, “Presumptively Legal.”

What makes them, “Presumptively Legal,” is the fact that the compacts between the Tribes and New Mexico are such that they can offer any form of gambling they want that is not prohibited by the compacts. Because of PASPA, sports betting was not even an option at the time the compacts were written (because it would have been illegal Federally); for that reason, the compacts did not prohibit sports betting.

We have no idea why the state would ever want to restrict the Native American Casinos from having in-person sports betting, but if they choose to do so, it would only happen the next time the compacts are written up.

NEW YORK

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

New York state law does define, “Illegal Gambling,” but a careful perusal of their laws would indicate to us that all potential crimes and penalties are focused on operators, not mere players, so there is no reason to believe players couldn’t play wherever they wished under state law.

In the meantime, New York is not home to regulated online casino-style games, but we suspect it will only be a matter of time until they are. Several surrounding states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, already have online casino-style gaming, so we would expect New York to get on board with that in the near future.

New York was also one of the earliest adopters of retail and online sports betting as they had passed a law regulating the same prior to PASPA even being overturned. As a result, they were able to get the ball rolling fairly early on; the operators are the same as you would find in many other states.

According to NY Sportsday, the state is already contemplating expanding their legal online gambling options to include casino-style games and poker. Quoting from their article:

The most optimistic person about New York online casino legalization is State Sen. Joseph Addabbo, D-Queens, who tells NY Sports Day he will push to have its legalization included in the 2023 state budget.

However, as “committed and fearless” as Addabbo is, he still must move at the pace of the New York State Legislature and other gambling regulatory bodies, says John A. Pappas, founder and CEO of Corridor Consulting. Pappas says if New York’s legalization of daily fantasy sports (DFS) and mobile sportsbooks are indications, that pace can be rather deliberate.

It’s difficult to say whether or not that will be passed this year (2023), but at least there is a more serious push to get it done than in some other states with online sports betting, such as New Hampshire, where we don’t know if they will ever expand the legal offerings to include casino games.

NORTH CAROLINA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

North Carolina is a state that takes its sports fairly seriously, especially when it comes to collegiate athletics. For that reason, the state could be a potential gold mine when it comes to online sports betting, and we would expect that Harrah’s Cherokee is working to push politicians to get the ball rolling on that; whether or not they actually want to is a whole different matter.

North Carolina has seen fit to restrict land-based casino-style gambling to Harrah’s Cherokee and does not have any commercial casinos. Given their general reluctance to expand casino gambling, if they do allow the Cherokee to have an online outlet at all, we would expect it to be sports only. In theory, North Carolina could also offer a competing Commercial Sportsbook outlet by way of the lottery department, as we have seen in other states.***

***UPDATE June 2023*** It would turn out that our earlier expectation was correct! According to the Charlotte Observer, North Carolina’s Governor, Roy Cooper, has signed House Bill 347 into law.

For anyone interested, the specific text of the version of this bill signed into law can be found here.

One area where we did miss a little bit is that this has nothing to do with Harrah’s Cherokee whatsoever; however, Harrah’s Cherokee will also be permitted to have sports wagering, both retail and online, but their online sports wagering is (in theory) only supposed to be accessible while the patron is located on tribal lands. Of course, Harrah’s Cherokee is operated by Caesars Entertainment, so it will be interesting to see if they will be permitted to have a tribal land presence as well as a commercial (state) one in the online sports betting market.

It’s important to understand that Caesars does not actually own Harrah’s Cherokee; they simply operate the property. It is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. For that reason, it’s possible that Caesars-owned online sportsbooks will choose to stay out of North Carolina’s commercial market lest it be seen as a conflict of interest. Alternatively, they could have a completely distinct online operating arm for commercial and one for tribal lands.

For the time being, these casinos are not yet available. The bill was only signed into law in June of 2023, which is two months ago, as of the time of this writing. Our expectation is that the regulated sportsbooks will actually begin to operate late this year or early next year. We would expect either FanDuel or DraftKings (if not both) to be amongst the operators.

The bill signed into law authorizes not only for Commercial online sportsbooks, but also for retail (read: physical) sportsbooks to exist in the state. For whatever reason, they have made the odd decision that an individual must be 21 years old to bet on sports. We think 21 v. 18 is always an odd choice (though almost every state does 21 for actual casinos), but it seems strange to us that it shouldn’t be 18 (voting age; legal adulthood) when the locations can offer sports only.

It also remains to be seen whether or not Harrah’s Cherokee will even bother with an online sportsbook that can only operate if the patron is located on Tribal lands. The reason that they legally MUST have the option to do so is due to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which is a federal-level law that states that tribes MUST be permitted to offer any forms of gambling that a state has made commercially legal.

Interestingly, provided they are licensed, any sports facility may offer sports betting, but they must partner with an online provider in order to do so. Quoting from the law, in part:

Ҥ 18C-926. Places of public accommodation.
(a) Permanent places of public accommodation for the purpose of placing sports wagers may be associated with each sports facility. Each sports facility may partner with one interactive sports wagering operator to provide places of public accommodation.

(b) Permanent places of public accommodation permitted under this section shall be

located as follows:

(1) On the property of the sports facility.

(2) No more than one place of public accommodation may be on other property owned or controlled by the owner or operator of the sports facility or an affiliated entity of the owner or operator of the sports facility that is located within a one-half mile radius of a sports facility as defined in G.S. 18C-901(17)a. or G.S. 18C-901(17)c.

(3) No more than one place of public accommodation may be on other property owned or controlled by the owner or operator of the sports facility that is located within a one and one-half mile radius of a sports facility as defined in G.S. 18C-901(17)b.

Harrah’s Cherokee, for its part, has to apply to the commission in order to offer physical and online sports betting. If they do so, which we suspect they will (at least for physical) then they will agree to be bound to the same rules that the state’s commission binds commercial operators to, which would superficially seem to be compliant with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

All that’s left is the waiting.

In the meantime, there have been no significant legislative pushes to license or regulate online casino-style wagering; the state isn’t too keen on casino gambling, in general, so we suspect that it will be quite some time (if ever) before they expand the sportsbooks to also being permitted to offer online casino or poker products.

NORTH DAKOTA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

North Dakota has a law that relates to unlawful gambling, which could apply to online players (in theory), but whether or not what they are doing is illegal is based on the amount bet. If the amount bet is less than $25, then it is not a violation of the law; if the amount bet is $25, or more, then it is technically a crime.

Of course, we could find no instance of anyone ever being prosecuted for playing online and betting more than $25. However, if you wanted to play it extremely safe, then you could play wherever you want to (provided they operate in your state) as long as you are betting less than $25, per wager.

According to KFYRTV, the tribes in the state, who already operate land-based Native American casinos, are making a push to get online sports betting and casino-style gambling included in the compact. Quoting, in part:

The tribes are turning to Republican Gov. Doug Burgum to approve the idea under tribal-state agreements known as compacts, the first of which was signed in 1992. The current compacts expire at the end of this year and only Burgum can approve them, said Deb McDaniel, North Dakota’s top gambling regulator.

With that, if the state’s Governor can be compelled to allow the Tribes to offer online sportsbooks and casino-style games, then it will happen. Based on what the article says, it’s exclusively the Governor’s choice whether or not to do that and the new compacts are to be decided any day now.

However, that didn’t exactly happen. According to Indian Country Today, the compact that was signed allows for mobile sports betting (but not casino games) and also specifies that someone must be located on Tribal property in order to place a bet. One concession that the Tribes got, however, is that the Governor agreed to reduce the gambling age from 21 to 19…of course, in such a thinly populated state, that’s not necessarily going to add a ton of casino visitors.

Given that, it’s going to likely be a great number of years before online casino-style games can be operated through the tribes, if it ever happens at all.

OHIO

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Offshore: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The Buckeye State isn’t quite as liberal as bordering Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Michigan when it comes to their gambling options. In fairness, West Virginia might be the most liberal state on gambling (because of the parlors) of any in the country. In any event, while the three states mentioned allow for online casino-style games to be offered by licensed operators, Ohio does not.

In fact, online sportsbooks becoming regulated just became law late last year (2022), so the sportsbooks have been operating for a few days, as of the time of this writing. The operators are pretty much the usual suspects that we see in other legal online sports betting states, such as DraftKings and FanDuel.

For those Ohioans who prefer casino-style gambling, there isn’t a law that would necessarily restrict a player from doing so. When it comes to unlawful gambling, that would only apply to players, for whatever reason, if they are doing it as a, “Substantial source of income or livelihood,” so we would assume that wouldn’t apply to recreational players.

There’s also a separate part of the Ohio Revised Code that outlaws the public playing of gambling games that have not been authorized by the law, so as long as you are not playing at an online casino in public (not that anyone would ever notice anyway), you’ll be fine.

The Akron Beacon Journal went into a few details about the 2022 bill that Governor, Mike DeWine, signed into law:

Casinos and racinos in the state have sportsbooks, or venues where bettors can place bets and watch games. Pro sports teams across the state and the Football Hall of Fame in Canton also have plans for sportsbooks. Many bars and places that already offer Keno machines will also offer sports gaming kiosks. But the overwhelming way most Ohioans will gamble is on their phone through a sports gaming app. That means people can place bets anywhere in the state, 24 hours a day.

This is pretty standard as it seems The Buckeye State always lags a few years behind bordering Pennsylvania and West Virginia when it comes to gambling offerings. They got land-based casinos a few years after those states did, authorized Table Games a few years after they already had and now have retail and online sports betting a few years later, as well. For that reason, we expect online casino style gambling to become a regulated reality in the state within the next few years.

OKLAHOMA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The Sooner State is fairly restrictive when it comes to Commercial Gambling, in that they have none, and they also occasionally give tribes problems depending on who the Governor is at the time and his or her attitude towards the Native American land-based casinos.

By the letter of the law:

Anyone who engages in any form of gambling not specifically authorized by the State faces a fine of $25-$100 or a jail term of 1-30 days or both.

With that, online gambling would technically be illegal, but we have heard of no instance of any player actually being charged under this law.

We doubt that online casino-style gambling will come to Oklahoma within the next several years, but according to The Ada News, some of the state’s lawmakers are working to turn retail and online sportsbetting into a reality:

State Rep. Ken Luttrell, R-Ponca City, the House author, said there “wasn’t any appetite for it” in the state Senate this year in part because of “moral issues.” He also said the failure to advance it had nothing to do with Gov. Kevin Stitt’s ongoing feud with tribal leaders, and said the governor had actually publicly voiced support for the idea.

“It’s truly an economic issue for the tribes and for the state,” Luttrell said. “We’re missing millions of dollars in revenue each week. Oklahomans are sports bettors whether they’re doing it online, under the table or journeying out of state placing their bets. We should be participating in that income and using that revenue for public education and for core services.”

It seems that Senators need to be convinced in order for the Native American casinos to be able to offer sports betting, so if you live in the state and would be interested in being able to do that, then we would recommend calling and E-Mailing your Senators.

Essentially, Luttrell is stating what we have always known: That people who are highly inclined to make sports bets are going to do it anyway, so the question really becomes whether or not The Sooner State is going to take its piece of the action. He also points out that retail sports betting would be a positive for the Tribal Casinos, who might find it more difficult to compete with some neighboring states wherein the Tribal Casinos can already offer a sportsbook.

Perhaps something will happen this year, though we don’t expect online poker or casino-style gambling to become a reality in this state anytime in the near future as it doesn’t even seem to be on the table right now.

OREGON

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Casino, Potentially; Sports, No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

The State of Oregon has recently allowed for both retail (in-person) and online sportsbooks to operate on a regulated basis. As of January 2023, however, there are no regulated online casinos within the state.

Oregon State Law would define unlawful gambling as gambling in any way that is not specifically authorized by the state. Because the state does not authorize online casino games, playing online could technically be a Class A Misdemeanor; however, the state doesauthorize online sports betting, so that would lead us to conclude you can do that wherever you wish.

Another aspect that makes the wording of the law a bit tricky is that Oregon does authorize some other games, just not online. That makes us wonder whether or not playing online versions of those games, as a player rather than an operator, would be illegal.

In any event, we could uncover no instance of anyone ever being prosecuted in the state under the Unlawful Gambling code for acting online as a player.

In terms of regulated sportsbook outlets, DraftKings is the only one that exists online and it operates through the Oregon State Lottery as you can see here. The arrangement between Oregon and DraftKings is similar to that between DraftKings and New Hampshire; if I were a manager at FanDuel, I’d be trying to get a higher-up in Maine on the phone before DraftKings gets that state, as well.

The state’s tribes are a bit upset about Oregon expanding their Commercial Gambling operations, but the good news for them is, pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, they must be allowed to offer retail sportsbooks (and, we assume, online) because the State of Oregon offers those things. For those who might not know, simply put, one of the things the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act states is that Tribal Casinos can automatically offer anything that is being offered Commercially by the state.

In the meantime, we do not really expect online casino-style games to become a reality in the state within the next few years. Essentially, the state would have to permit the Tribes to do that (which would create competition with sports/casino products competing with DraftKings, who can only offer sports through the Oregon State Lottery), so we do not think the state will amend the compacts to allow for that. We also don’t think the state will get into Commercial online casinos because it does not have Commercial land-based casinos.

PENNSYLVANIA

• Online Casinos: Yes
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The short story on Pennsylvania is that they have had online casinos for a few years that are regulated through the state; this was expanded to include sportsbooks, at first opportunity, after PASPA got struck down.

If you wanted to gamble at an offshore casino and are located in Pennsylvania, we could find nothing in state law that would make it illegal to do so as a player. Beyond that, we don’t think gambling online (as a player) was ever illegal as all of the state’s unlawful gambling laws have always focused on operators.

RHODE ISLAND

• Online Casinos: Yes
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes (One)
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

As far as we can tell, Rhode Island state law has never carried a penalty that would apply to an individual playing at an online casino. They do have very strict laws about operating an unlawful gambling outlet, which can even include social gambling, but none of their laws appear to be focused on people who are just playing.

Recently, the state has authorized both retail and online sports betting, all of which is carried out by the Rhode Island State Lottery, so there is only one sports betting website as a result.

UPDATE August 2023: Rhode Island has now legalized online casino products, which was actually a surprise to us because there hadn’t been any meaningful legislation in that regard as of the time this was originally written. However, both the House and Senate passed this online casino legislation, which Governor Daniel McKee signed into law in June of 2023.

Similarly to other states, any such casinos must either have a tie to an in-state casino, or in the alternative, be separately licensed.

Of course, the regulated betting sites are not live yet, but we would expect some websites to be ready to operate as of March 1st, 2024, which is when this bill technically goes into effect.

SOUTH CAROLINA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The majority of South Carolina’s unlawful gambling laws focus on operators, even people who are just operating social games. There can be fines associated with unlawful gambling as a player, but the laws associated with that specify what type of gaming could lead to incurring a fine or imprisonment, and online gambling is not mentioned.

We also could not find any instance of anyone ever being prosecuted for the mere act of playing at an online casino.

South Carolina was, perhaps shockingly, one of the first states to authorize and regulate Daily Fantasy Sports, which they did even prior to the Supreme Court overturning PASPA. Because of that, one might think they’d have been one of the first to jump on legalized sports betting, but they have yet to do so.

According to Fox54, some of the state’s lawmakers are in favor of an online-only bill, which makes sense, because the state does not have any Commercial Casinos. Quoting from the article:

Loda says there could be some potential challenges. “In any kind of wagering and betting people can get overextended,” she says. “You should only bet with what you can afford to lose.” But she says with the success other states are seeing, South Carolina could see a lot of benefits. “It’s a type of gaming for the current generation of young people,” she says. “It’s helping to grow sports, it’s helping to grow state revenues. And it’s helping — believe it or not — to support media money, because the more people who watch football on television, the more advertisers can charge for their spots. And sports betting is really adding to the number of people who watch sports on television so there’s a widespread benefit.”

It seems to me that all of those are well-founded arguments.

The bill that was proposed did not go to vote in 2022, but it may be brought up in the future. The way that the bill that wasn’t voted upon was worded would see the regulation being handled by the South Carolina Education Lottery; it might also make sense for the lottery to come up with an exclusivity deal with a single bookmaker, the way states such as Oregon and New Hampshire have.

In the meantime, we do not expect regulated online casino games to come to South Carolina within even the next ten years! South Carolina seems really loathe to get into casino-style gaming in any way whatsoever.

SOUTH DAKOTA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal To Play Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Historically, South Dakota has been perfectly content to restrict all forms of Commercial Gambling to the tourist city of Deadwood, located in the Northwestern part of the state. The same appears to be true of sports betting, in that Deadwood casinos are permitted to offer retail sports wagering, but there are presently no online sportsbooks allowed in the state.

State law would make it a Class 2 Misdemeanor to engage in any form of gambling other than those which are specifically authorized by the state, which would include both online casino-style games and sports betting. That being said, we could find no instance of anyone ever being prosecuted for acting in the capacity of a player online.

Dakota News Now reports that there is some Legislative interest in making online sports betting a reality, but the proposed bill died in the Legislature without even going to a vote. The report states:

The resolution proposed an amendment to the South Dakota constitution. It would have authorized wagering on sporting events by individuals located around the state by using their cellphone or another electronic platform. Had the resolution passed, it would have put the issue on the 2022 general election ballot, and voters would have ultimately decided its fate.

With that, if online sports betting becomes a reality at all, then it won’t be until 2024 at the earliest. The first thing that would have to happen is the resolution would have to pass, after that, it would have to go to a vote in the 2023 General Election, which would likely result in not having the regulatory framework in place until the following year.

Of course, the reason why it never went to a full Senate vote is because it failed in committee by a vote of 10-3, so that leads us to believe that such a bill…just to bring the vote to the people…is nowhere near passing. If you’d want regulated online sportsbooks to come to the state, then we would recommend calling your representatives!

TENNESSEE

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Casinos, Yes; Sportsbooks, No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

The State of Tennessee now has regulated online sports betting, which comes as quite a surprise as their gambling options were once limited to the State Lottery as well as some Charitable Gambling type things.

Gambling on casino-style games online would technically be illegal as it is illegal to gamble in any fashion that is not specifically authorized by the state. The state also has laws prohibiting the possession of a gambling device, which your computer or phone would become if you were using it to gamble.

Of course, we could uncover no instance of anyone ever being prosecuted under this law due to playing at an online casino.

According to Rocky Top Insider:

The growth and success of Tennessee sports betting make it easy to forget legislation almost didn’t pass back in 2019. Gov. Bill Lee let House Bill 1 pass without his signature while saying he didn’t believe online sports betting was in the best interest of the state. That was after the bill narrowly passed in the Senate 19 to 12.

Considering Gov. Lee referred to casino gambling as “the most harmful form of gambling”, those hoping to see online gambling expanded in Tennessee will likely be waiting for some time.

As we can see, Governor Lee was opposed to just sports betting, but he let the will of the people be done. He spoke out against online casino-style gambling, and given the fact that the state does not have any Commercial Casinos, we expect that many of the Senators to have voted favorably on the sports betting bill would reject an online casino-style gambling, or online poker, bill.

Governor Lee was also just reelected in 2022, so we would expect that the state will not authorize any Internet casinos for at least the next five years.

TEXAS

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Texas is really big on freedom–the freedom to do whatever the church and the state tell you to do. It’s pretty easy to get away with shooting someone, though.

Unsurprisingly, the State of Texas does not have any Commercial Casinos and presently doesn’t allow for either online casino-style gambling or sports betting. In fact, Texas has gone after their two Tribal Casinos to try to restrict them from offering Electronic Bingo, which the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act would specifically permit them to do as it is a Class II game.

While there aren’t very many ways to legally gamble in Texas, the Texas State Lottery does sell $100 denomination Instant Lottery Tickets, so that’s fun. /sarcasm

Texas Statute 47.01(1) makes it illegal to participate in any form of gambling that is not sanctioned by the state and says that such is a Class C Misdemeanor.

Naturally, we could find no instance of anyone ever actually being prosecuted under this law as a result of playing at an online casino.

KXAN reports that the Texas state Government is considering legalizing sports betting, which would apply to retail betting, and potentially online. The Government of Texas probably won’t realize that means that the Native American casinos will also be allowed to offer sports betting in the state should this pass, so then they will probably try to take legal action against them. Quoting, in part:

“The legalization of mobile sports betting in Texas would mean implementing smart and efficient oversight to preserve the integrity of sporting events, empower Texans to safely participate in mobile sports betting, and fight illegal gambling,” Perry said in a press release. “Given that Texans are already participating in mobile sports betting, legalization would be a win for all involved.”

Both online sports betting and casinos are illegal in Texas — except for three casinos operating legally on Native American territory in the Lone Star State due to federal law. Despite casino-lobbying groups pouring millions of dollars into policymakers’ pockets in recent years, state lawmakers failed to move forward on legalizing either during the 2021 legislative session.

Exactly as Governor Perry pointed out, people in Texas are already betting on sports anyway, so the question is whether or not the state wants a piece of the action.

Separately, there has been a bill introduced that would allow the state to license land-based Commercial Casinos, but we don’t expect that to go anywhere anytime soon. Quite frankly, we would be slightly surprised if they manage to just get the sports betting done in the next year or two.

UTAH

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: No
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Was Joseph Smith a Mormon? (Yes)
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

Every form of gambling is illegal in Utah. In fact, Utah was one of the only states to add to the existing Unlawful Gambling laws to specify that gambling online is also illegal, even though the verbiage of the already-existing law would have clearly also applied to online gambling.

The closest thing you could get to gambling in Utah is that there was a Bingo event for $25 that included dinner. You weren’t actually paying to play Bingo, as they would have it, you were paying $25 for dinner and the Bingo was included in that price. This entity had better hope it doesn’t come to vote as a ballot measure, however, or it will almost certainly be made illegal.

Even though the law makes clear that it is illegal, we can uncover no instance of anyone actually being prosecuted simply for playing online.

VERMONT

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

UPDATE: August 2023:

Previously, we opined:

As you can see, the state recognizes that people are already doing it, and are going to continue to do it, thus causing them to just miss out on revenues. The same would be presumptively true of online casino-style gaming, but that hasn’t even been brought up by the state, as yet.

What would make the most sense for Vermont, assuming any bill passes at all, would be to craft an exclusivity deal with someone like DraftKings the way states such as Oregon and New Hampshire have and have it all regulated through the Vermont State Lottery. Given the state’s limited population, similar to New Hampshire, an offer of exclusivity might enable the state to get 50% of the revenues.

We were half right.

In June of 2023, according to Vermont Public, Governor Phil Scott signed into law a bill that would regulate the conduct of online sports betting in The Green Mountain State.

The aspect of the bill that does not surprise us is that this sports betting activity will run through the Vermont State Lottery; given that the state is not home to any Commercial Casinos whatsoever, this only makes sense.

The aspect of the bill that DOES surprise us is that it calls for the potential for there to be multiple operators. We believed that Vermont would do something similar to what their mirror-neighbor, New Hampshire, did with DraftKings and find an exclusive partner, but for the time being, it seems that there might be multiple online sportsbooks in the State of Vermont.

Furthermore, where New Hampshire is getting an even chop of the adjusted gross wagering revenues with DraftKings, the tax hit that operators will get in Vermont could be as low as 20%, according to the version of the bill that was signed into law.

As with the other states, we would expect implementation to come in 2024, at the earliest.

It’s difficult to make a prediction as to whether or not Vermont will go ahead with online casino-style products, of if they do, how soon that might be. Their logic on the sports betting aspect is that people are doing it anyway, so the state might as well get a piece of the RealMoneyAction, but that logic also holds for online casinos

VIRGINIA

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Casino, Yes; Sports, No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

Virginia has evolved a lot when it comes to their gaming offerings and have done so fairly quickly.

The first big development was when, “Games of Skill,” came into the state and were, more or less, tolerated. Eventually, the state decided to phase out the Skill Games. First, they placed a moratorium on new units being brought in and then had a phase-out and set a date by which all Games of Skill had to be gone.

Those who don’t live in the state might assume that they did this because they wanted to have fewer forms of gambling, right? You’d actually be quite wrong; the reason the state got rid of the Skill Games is because there were public votes in a few towns by which land-based Commercial Casinos (and one Tribal Casino) could be authorized, so the Government essentially got rid of the Skill Games competition for them, in advance.

In the meantime, Virginia has now authorized retail and online sports betting, so we would expect the casinos (a few of which are still under construction) to offer both retail and online sports betting. They say, “Virginia is for lovers,” but increasingly, it seems that Virginia might be for gamblers, as long as the state is getting a piece of the revenues, of course.

Illegal Gambling, which is defined as gambling in any fashion that is not sanctioned by the state, constitutes a Class III Misdemeanor. There are also laws against the possession of an unlawful gaming device, which your computer, phone or tablet would become if you were using it to conduct unlawful gambling.

For that reason, we conclude that online casino-style gambling is technically illegal because it is not authorized by the state. In the meantime, because the state does authorize online sports betting, we assume you could do that at any site you wish.

We don’t know whether or not online casino games and poker become a reality, but we suspect that it will become more likely if Maryland does it. It seems that Maryland does things a few years after Pennsylvania and West Virginia do, then it trickles down to Virginia.

WASHINGTON

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes (Must be on Reservation property)
• Illegal to Gamble Online: YES
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Washington is one of the only states that makes Unlawful Gambling a FELONY and that law would, indeed, apply just to players. They also make it illegal to receive or transmit data for the purpose of unlawful wagering, which does include the Internet, which is specifically mentioned.

When it comes to Online Sportsbooks, those are authorized only through the Tribal Casinos, so it is a similar situation as with Mississippi and Montana that, in order to conduct mobile wagering, you must be geolocated as being on reservation property.

For players, Washington actually has unlawful gambling as a stricter category of crime than does any other state, so that’s something to keep in mind. We haven’t found any instance of anyone ever being prosecuted for playing at an online casino, but the threat is certainly there and the law has teeth if you are caught.

There have been bills to legalize online poker in the state for almost a decade now, with House Bill 1114 being introduced and reintroduced several times, but it never made it to a full vote. We would be surprised if the state ever regulates online casino-style gambling, but until it does, the state could theoretically treat gambling online as a very serious crime.

WEST VIRGINIA

• Online Casinos: Yes
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

West Virginia does not allow for any form of gambling that is not authorized by the state, but as a practical matter, there are no forms of gambling that the state doesn’t authorize! The Mountain State is home to both online sportsbooks and casinos, that being the case, we would suggest that it is not illegal to gamble online even if you are doing so at an offshore casino.

Speaking of forms of gambling, it finally happened: According to Grey2K, as of January 2023, West Virginia is the only state with active greyhound racing!

Given the lack of competition, one might assume that West Virginia’s greyhound racing makes a lot of money, right? It doesn’t. In fact, the law in the state is such that the two casinos with greyhound racing must offer it in order to have the casinos; the revenues on other casino games, and a separate tax called the, “Greyhound Breeding Development Fund,” subsidizes the greyhound racing, ‘Industry,’ which still manages to operate at a net loss anyway.

I guess nothing says, “Wild and Wonderful,” like having the Government force the casinos to subsidize dog torture all for the purpose of a, ‘Sport,’ that almost nobody in the United States cares about anymore. All of that just to lose money! They could take the money outside and burn it on the track without torturing dogs, at least THAT would be fun to watch.

WISCONSIN

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes (On Reservation Property)
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Yes
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 21

Wisconsin state law makes it illegal to gamble in any fashion that is not specifically authorized by the state; therefore, gambling online is technically a Class B Misdemeanor for players. Even with that, we could find no instance of anyone actually being prosecuted for playing online.

Wisconsin sports betting laws are similar to those in Washington in that retail and online sports betting are both legal, but only if you are on Native American Reservation property.

We could not find any recent bills that would create Commercial sports betting (retail or online) or Commercial online casino-style gambling in the state; we suspect that they are perfectly content to just let the tribes have it.

WYOMING

• Online Casinos: No
• Online Sportsbooks: Yes
• Illegal to Gamble Online: Casinos, Yes; Sportsbooks, No
• Legal Casino Gambling Age: 18

By the letter of the law, any form of gambling that has not specifically been made legal by the state can theoretically lead to a fine of up to $750 and imprisonment of up to six months; thus, gambling online is technically illegal. However, we could uncover no instance of anyone actually being charged under this law just for playing online.

Aside from that, online sportsbooks are now allowed to operate within Wyoming and are taxed at a low rate of 10%. It does not appear that any recent Legislation has been introduced that would expand online offerings to include casino-style games.

Conclusion

While some laws would, either directly or indirectly, prohibit online casino-style (or sports) gaming, the state with the strictest laws is easily Washington.

As we can see above, when PASPA was overturned, more than half of the states authorized sports betting, which included online more often than not, relatively quickly. The regulation of online casinos has expanded much more slowly, in comparison.

Once again, we could find no instance, in any state, of anyone being prosecuted simply for playing online. Many states have gone after unlawful operators in the past, but we would be surprised if any actually started prosecuting players.

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