Traditionally, gambling in America has most strongly been associated with Las Vegas, Nevada (and to a lesser extent Atlantic City, New Jersey). Over time, casinos expanded to riverboats and Native American reservations. Then came the rise of the internet, and with it a multitude of options for gaming online.
Nowadays, you don’t have to be in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, on a riverboat or an Indian reservation to gamble in America because of the proliferation of USA online casinos. No matter what your game: slots, poker, betting on sports- there’s an American way to do it these days.
Let’s take a look at all the different methods you have for gambling in the United States of America. It’s the red, white and blue ways to win some green.
States with Regulated Online Poker
In the states where it’s both legal and regulated by local government, online poker has had an underwhelming debut. If you study the information presented at sites like https://topnzcasinos.co.nz/ then you’ll see it’s not the number game in the cyberspace town. While poker is certainly no craze, and it’s here to stay (the World Series of Poker turned 50 this year), it peaked in popularity about a decade ago, so this is largely a business opportunity missed.
Or perhaps it’s the outlaw vibe, you know the wild wild west motif, often attributed to poker that gives it an allure. It’s just less interesting when it’s legal maybe? The only three states where poker is currently legal are Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey, according to PlayUSA.com
States that Have Legalized Sports Betting, and Who’s On Deck
As it currently stands, ten states have legal, state-regulated sports betting industries: Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey (we’ve covered them in detail here), Mississippi, West Virginia, Pennsylvania (profiled PA sports betting landscape in this feature), Rhode Island, Arkansas and New York.
Additionally, in New Mexico, some tribes now offer sports betting under an existing Class III gaming license. Also, the following states could have some sort of legal wagering in 2019 or 2020: Illinois (we had an exclusive with the lawmaker who led the legislative charge here), Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Tennessee. All have legalized except for Maine, who already had a bill passed, but it awaits further legislative action in 2020.
It’s a brand new betting ballgame in America to say the least.
States with Legal Online Casinos
Once again citing PlayUSA.com, there are three states with a legal online casino industry: New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. As you can see it’s the same set of states are ahead of the curve when it comes to moving the goalposts of online casino regulation.
Just the like settling and founding of America itself, the ground-breaking gambling laws originate on the eastern seaboard.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.