Sports gambling laws and regulations
Sports betting laws differ from place to place. In the United States, sports gambling is regarded as illegal practically in most states save some like Nevada, Montana etc. The legality and general acceptance of sports betting is highly regulated in numerous European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans need to know the best way to bet tax-free – excellent info at GertGambell.net. “Sports gambling” is considered by legalized sports gambling proponents as a sports hobby for sports enthusiasts to increase their interest in a sporting event thus being a big benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are plenty of sites that happen to be reputable that will not allow US residents to bet through them but with the advent of the internet and offshore gambling sites it is getting more difficult to govern the sports gambling actions of Americans. For many years the US argued up against the online gambling legal issues by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to halt sports gambling activities between states by using wire containing devices and the telephone. Considering that the internet had not been yet invented at that time, legal experts today question whether regulations actually pertained to the internet services or not.
The Justice Department of the US however claimed the Wire Act did relate to all forms of online or internet gambling. In 2006, The congress wrote the SAFE Port Act and passed it to increase the United States port security. Attached to this was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibited US citizens from usage of electronic fund transfer or checks, credit cards etc to finance any internet gambling activity.
The thing that was important was the fact that the act dealt only with the funding of internet gambling accounts and not the specific placing of the bet. Therefore an online betting law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that the bill that was passed didn’t have impact on the gambling activity of the individual but focused only around the restriction of specific transactions which were financial and relating to the banks and internet gambling sites. Thus the bill failed to make internet gambling illegal but it made funding ones bet or wager on the web sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction and not the specific act of betting by the individual.
Rep Barney Frank then introduced in 2007, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act in order to legalize internet sports gambling and at the same time frame Rep.es McDermott introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act to regulate betting sites online and collect tax on all bets made.
The country of Antigua and Barbuda in 2003 filed a complaint against the US with the World Trade Organization the US (based on their sports gambling laws and ban on betting on the net) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled for their favor and though the United States appealed the initial ruling was upheld on plenty of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million as well as the right to penalize the United States copyright and trademark laws.