Sports gambling laws and regulations
Sports betting laws are different from place to place. In the United States, sports gambling is regarded as illegal in most states save some like Nevada, Montana etc. The legality and general acceptance of sports gambling is highly regulated in several European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans need to know how 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 enhance their fascination with a sporting event thus being a great 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 although with the advent of the internet and offshore gambling websites it truly is getting difficult to govern the sports gambling activities of Americans. For quite a while the United States argued up against the internet gambling legal issues by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to stop sports gambling activities between the states by using wire containing devices along with the telephone. Because the internet was not yet invented at that time, legal experts today question whether the law actually pertained to the net services or otherwise.
The Justice Department of America however claimed that the Wire Act did refer to all forms of online or internet gambling. In 2006, The congress wrote the SAFE Port Act and passed it to increase the US port security. Attached with this was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibited US citizens from utilization of electronic fund transfer or checks, credit cards etc to fund any internet gambling activity.
The thing that was important was the fact that the act dealt only with the funding of internet betting accounts and not the actual placing of the bet. Thus an Internet betting law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that this bill which was passed didn’t have effect on the betting activity of the individual but focused only around the restriction of specific transactions which were financial and concerning the banks and internet gambling sites. Thus the bill did not make internet gambling illegal but it made funding ones bet or wager on the internet sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction and not the specific act of betting by way of the individual.
Rep Barney Frank then introduced in 2007, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act as a way 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 nation of Antigua and Barbuda in 2003 filed a complaint against the US with the World Trade Organization that the US (based upon their sports gambling laws and ban on betting on the internet) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled in their favor and though the US appealed the original ruling was upheld on lots of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million as well as the right to penalize the US copyright and trademark laws.
