A Guide to Which States Allow Legal Online Sports Betting
The U.S. online sports betting market is getting wider by the day, with new states passing the relevant legislation to allow bettors the chance to back sports bets either online or in a brick-and-mortar establishment every month.
This has led to a growing market and new sportsbooks, offering sports betting enthusiasts the chance to enjoy the pastime. However, it is certainly a little confusing as to where it is now legal to place an online sports bet, and to help you make sense of it all, we’ve collated the relevant information for you.
Though the question may be as simple as “Where is sports betting legal?” the answer is not clear-cut, or at least not obviously so. Some states are in the process of getting the legislation through, and others have passed that point but are now waiting for the i’s to be dotted and the t’s to be crossed.
As an example, New York has passed the legislation needed to offer online sports betting, but the launch for betting won’t be up and running until early 2022, hopefully ahead of the Super Bowl.
List of States Where Online Sports Betting is Legal
● Oregon
● Nevada
● Arizona
● Colorado
● Wyoming
● Iowa
● Illinois
● Indiana
● Michigan
● Tennessee
● Florida (pending latest challenge)
● Virginia
● West Virginia
● Pennsylvania
● New Jersey
● Connecticut
● Rhode Island
● New Hampshire
Sports Betting is legal in retail areas in ten other states, and in some of these, there are ongoing efforts to expand to online activity.
In New York, nine operators have been selected to cover the online services, and when these come into operation, there could be something of a domino effect, such is the status of the state, and in Florida, though online sports betting was legalized, a recent challenge has held up things in that territory.
Sports betting is going to be huge in the US and is already bringing in massive tax revenues for those states that are already in the game. Recent projections suggest that the sports betting industry in the U.S. could be worth as much as $40 billion by 2033.
Currently, with some states allowing online betting and others not doing so, the U.S. is in an antiquated situation where bettors sometimes just travel across state lines to place a bet. This is a trend that saw Connecticut enjoying a big boost from customers coming in from New York, with over 30% of the revenue they made in their first weeks of the operation coming from out of state.
In California, the issue of sports betting is growing more and more complicated, and it could be some time before things are legal there. Still, clearly, the size of that particular sports betting market would dwarf pretty much all other U.S. regions, so it’s worth watching out to see how things progress in the Sunshine State.
One would imagine that within a relatively short period of time, pretty much all the major states will have given players the chance to bet on sports online.
