Is it legal to gamble online?
There are currently no laws prohibiting you from making a wager over the internet. Through all the years of online gambling, I have never heard of anyone getting into trouble because they placed a bet over the internet either sports betting or casino. What the law states is that it is illegal to take bets (bookie) and not place bets. The most controversial topic when it comes to online gambling on the 1961 Wire Act.
The statute that most directly restricts the use of the Internet to place bets is the Wire Wager Act. This Act directly prohibits the use of a wire transmission facility to foster a gambling pursuit. It provides, in part:
Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
Two different views of this statute can be taken. Some regulatory advocates feel that this statute broadly covers any interstate use of the Internet that is related to placing or receiving bets. Support for this assertion is found in the emphasis placed upon the following phrase: “use” of a wire facility. For example, if this law does indeed apply to online wagering, a bookmaker would violate the act simply by emailing a point spread across state lines if the purpose was to assist “in the placing of bets.”
Challengers to the applicability of this Act point to two issues. First, the words “wire communication facility” only apply to transmissions that use wires. Currently, wireless Internet access is already being provided by cellular phone companies and with handheld computers. The proliferation of such services is inevitable. The Wire Wager Act would not apply to companies that allow wagering or provide information to assist in a wager through a wireless service. Second, the Act might only apply to wagering upon sporting events (not card games or other games based upon chance). The first portion of the Act refers to “bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest.” However, only a few phrases later the Act becomes more expansive by referring generally to “bets or wagers.” The legislative history on the Act suggests that the purpose of the Act was to regulate sports betting and activities, like numbers games, that were related to organized crime. Nevertheless, the challenge is a valid one.
Another relevant shortcoming in the Wire Wager Act is its significance only to those “being engaged in the business of betting or wagering.” This phrase limits the act to professional bookmakers who set up online facilities. Excluded would be online gamblers, Internet service providers, and those arranging for wagering without making a profit (office pools, for example). Despite these limitations, the Wire Wager Act contains language that is broad enough to allow the law to serve as the primary basis in the attempt to hold operators of online gambling operations criminally liable.