Legal Sports Betting States: Where You Can Bet Online & In-Person

Legal online sports betting
(AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

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Sports betting is now legal in a majority of US states. On this page, you can find out where you can place a sports bet online in the USA.

The table below contains an updated list of every state that allows sports betting. Click on the link for your state to see more specific information about the sports betting options where you live.

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States where sports betting is legal

StateOnline sports bettingRetail sports bettingNotes
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware🚫Online legal, but no plans to launch
Florida
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
MaineLegal, but not live
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
MississippiOn site only
Montana$250 bet limit retail, $1,000 bet limit online
NebraskaLegal, but not liveLegal, but not live
NevadaIn-person registration and banking
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico🚫No sports betting law
New York
North CarolinaSportsbooks live as of March 11, 2024!
North Dakota🚫No sports betting law
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota🚫
Tennessee🚫
Vermont🚫
VirginiaLegal, but not live
WashingtonOn site only
Washington, D.C.2 of 3 apps function in limited areas only
West Virginia
WisconsinOn site only
WyomingLegal, but not liveTribal entities will offer retail at some point

States with legal sports betting

Arizona

Arizona has offered online sports betting sites since September 2021. Major sports betting brands including DraftKings, BetMGM, FanDuel, and Caesars have all set up shop in AZ.

Arizona chose a unique approach to its allotment of sports betting licenses. Half of the 20 licenses authorized by law were designated for (some of) the federally-recognized Native American tribes in the state. The other 10, controversially, went to sports teams and organizations that call Arizona home.

At present, there are more than 12 sports betting sites open for business in Arizona. Arizona is also one of the few places with a retail sports betting location available at a major sports venue. There are sportsbooks at Chase Field, Footprint Center, and State Farm Stadium, and a fourth sportsbook is due to open soon at TPC Scottsdale.

Arkansas

Arkansas has been a sports betting state for longer than most realize. It has been possible to place a wager in Arkansas since July 2019.

However, the debut of sports betting in Arkansas was a muted affair due to the state’s initial decision to remain a retail-only state. There were sportsbook options at the three racinos in the state, but the new industry mostly limped along. The only possible expansion was from a fourth casino in Pope County, which remains under construction to this day. 

Thankfully, Arkansas lawmakers realized their mistake and updated the rules to allow for online sports betting in December 2021. There are now three online sportsbooks live in Arkansas. All three reflect the brands of their home casinos - Betly is operated by Southland owner Delaware North, BetSaracen represents the Saracen Casino Resort, and Oaklawn offers online betting through Oaklawnsports.com.

However, Arkansas law allows for up to eight online sports betting sites, so don’t count out some of the bigger names from appearing in Arkansas sometime in the future.

Colorado

Colorado has been home to legal sports betting sites since May 2020. Because of Colorado’s unique casino situation, it offered more opportunity for online sportsbooks to launch than most states do.

Colorado is home to nearly three dozen casinos. However, all of them are confined to one of three small towns in the mountains. Black Hawk and Central City are roughly an hour due west of Denver, while Cripple Creek is about the same distance and direction from Colorado Springs. 

Because of their location and difficult accessibility - especially during the winter - each of the casinos needed the ability to offer online sports betting for the fledgling industry to succeed. At this point, the vast majority of them have either partnered with an online sports betting site provider or created their own site to serve Coloradans. There are now more than 24 online sportsbooks active in Colorado.

Connecticut

Connecticut began offering sports betting in October 2021. There are now three online sportsbook sites and 10 retail sportsbooks available to accept your bets in the state.

Connecticut’s approach to sports betting has served as an acknowledgment of the tremendous influence that its two federally-recognized tribes have on the state. Connecticut’s only two casinos are operated by these groups, and the Mohegan Sun (Mohegan Tribe) and Foxwoods (Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation) are two of the largest casino properties in the world. 

So, there was never any doubt that Connecticut sports betting would involve both tribes. The only additional party to the license eligibility was the Connecticut Lottery, which gained the ability to offer an online sports betting site and several retail locations. The partners of the two tribal casinos, DraftKings and FanDuel, are now the dominant forces in the Connecticut sports betting market. The lottery online sportsbook is struggling to compete.

Delaware 

Delaware became the first state outside of Nevada to allow sports betting when it accepted its first wager in 2018, a few hours before New Jersey did the same. There are now three retail sportsbooks operating in the state. However, despite the fact that the law permits online sports betting, there are no online sportsbooks in the state, and there is no timeline for their arrival. 

Florida

Following a lengthy legal battle, the Seminole Tribe of Florida relaunched its Hard Rock Bet online sports betting app in Nov. 2023, then the following month opened retail sportsbooks in several of its Florida casinos.

A change to the tribal-state gambling compact back in 2021 led to the Hard Rock app going live for a brief period late that year, but it was taken offline amid legal challenges and an eventual decision against the tribe in federal court. The Seminoles won their appeal, however, enabling them to begin offering their app and live sports betting at their properties.

Illinois

Illinois has been home to sports betting sites and retail sports betting locations since March 2020. However, a rather misguided legislative decision included in Illinois’ sports betting law hobbled the industry’s growth until March 2022.

That decision was the requirement that players complete their registrations in person at the home casino of their chosen sports betting apps. Illinois is a large enough state that such a requirement was inconvenient - at best. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker didn’t do lawmakers any favors, either, when he suspended the in-person requirement temporarily during the pandemic. 

However, all’s well that ends well, and Illinois sports bettors now routinely wager hundreds of millions of dollars each month. There are now more than a half-dozen sportsbook sites in the state, including Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet, and BetMGM.

Indiana

Indiana legalized and launched sports betting in 2019. The spin-up from May to September represented one of the shortest law-to-launch intervals of any state to legalize sports betting. Retail sportsbooks opened their doors first, then online sports betting sites began to appear a month later in October.

The early days of Indiana sports betting benefitted from the situations in neighboring states. Illinois dragged its feet for a few months and handcuffed itself with its in-person registration requirement, while neither Ohio nor Indiana managed to launch their own sportsbooks until 2023.

As a result, Indiana sportsbooks have booked more than $5 billion in bets in the years since it launched. You can now place a bet at all 13 of Indiana’s casinos and more than a dozen online sports betting sites.

Iowa

Iowa was a somewhat surprising member of the “second wave” of states to legalize sports betting. The Hawkeye State launched both online sports betting sites and physical sportsbook locations in August 2019.

Unfortunately, Iowa lawmakers foolishly included an in-person registration requirement as part of the terms of the online sports betting law. Thus, the industry limped out of the gate and did not perform up to expectations in its early days.

Thankfully, the in-person registration requirement came with a sunset provision, and Iowans no longer had to travel to register after the beginning of 2021. Since then, more than a dozen online sportsbooks have launched to offer service in a state without any professional teams to bet.

Kansas

Kansas took its time to debut as a sports betting state. Its legalization did not happen until May 2022, years after sports betting became a state-level issue. However, to their credit, lawmakers and regulators managed to move with speed and launch sports betting sites at the beginning of September 2022. 

The Jayhawk State is now home to more than a half-dozen sportsbook sites. Sites with top pedigrees are active in Kansas, including DraftKings, BetMGM, FanDuel, and Caesars.

You can also find in-person sports betting at the four commercial casinos in the state. State law permits as many as 12 sports betting sites to launch, so it’s possible that more big names are coming to Kansas soon.

Kentucky

Kentucky sports betting sites launched on Sept. 28, 2023.

Each of Kentucky’s nine licensed horsetracks is eligible to offer sports betting. Their licenses allow the tracks to launch as many as three “skins” - industry-speak for individual sports betting site brands. As a result, there could be as many as 27 online sportsbooks in Kentucky.

However, the exact identities of those sportsbooks is a bit murkier, particularly in light of recent actions by Churchill Downs Incorporated. CDI has announced that it plans to withdraw from sports betting, leaving massive question marks about what kinds of sportsbooks might actually get to operate through the licenses owned by CDI.

Louisiana

Louisiana joined the sports betting fraternity of states in January 2022. There are now more than a half-dozen of the best sports betting sites available for play, and several retail locations for in-person betting as well. According to state law, there could be as many as 41 online sportsbooks to launch.

Like the state itself, Louisiana sports betting is a quirky endeavor. The decision about whether to allow sports betting in Louisiana fell to voters at the parish level. As a result, only 55 of the state’s 64 parishes allow sports betting - the other 9 are subject to geofencing in order to keep inhabitants from betting.

Perhaps the most interesting element about what sports betting is and could be in Louisiana pertains to its retail locations. In addition to the retail sportsbooks that you may find at casinos and racetracks in the state, you may also see sports betting kiosks at thousands of bars, restaurants, and truck stops around the Pelican State. The Louisiana Lottery is able to place these machines there thanks to a special provision in the law.

Maine

Online and retail sports betting became legal in Maine as of August 2022, and the first online sportbooks launched on Nov. 3, 2023. Caesars Sportsbook and DraftKings Sportsbook were the first two sports betting sites to go live in Maine, and even though the new law allows up to four sites, those two may ultimately be the only ones to do so.

Maine’s new sports betting law authorizes Maine's four federally-recognized Native American tribes to offer online sports betting. Three of the tribes have partnered with Caesars and the other with DraftKings, which is why the state will likely have only two online sportsbooks. 

The new law also allows up to 10 retail sports betting locations, although it appears there will be fewer than that as well. Two in-person sites will be BetMGM Sportsbooks operating out of off-track betting facilities. Meanwhile, neither of the state’s two casinos, Hollywood Casino Bangor (operated by Penn Entertainment) and Oxford Casino (operated by Churchill Downs), has applied for a sports betting license yet. 

Maryland

Few states that have legalized both online and retail sports betting have had more of a gap between the launch of the two formats than Maryland. After passing enabling legislation in November 2020, retail sports betting opened its doors at several locations just over a year later in December 2021.

However, sports betting sites were nowhere to be found. Reports began to surface that the delay was due to regulators’ attempts to satisfy diversity and inclusion goals in the awarding of licenses. Eventually, the desire of lawmakers, regulators, and operators pushed the ball forward on online sports betting. 

The first sites opened their virtual doors in November 2022, almost a year after the retail launch and two years after sports betting became legal in Maryland. There are now roughly one dozen online sports betting sites either launched or soon to launch in the state, and many more are expected to come - Maryland law allows for the possibility of as many as 60 sports betting licenses.

Massachusetts

2023 proved to be the year that Massachusetts entered the fray as a sports betting state. Both retail and online sports betting launched; retail sportsbooks opened in January and online betting sites following two months later in March.

Massachusetts is primarily an online sports betting site state. The law which allowed sports betting to begin designated that 8 licenses are tethered to physical locations in the state - its racinos - and an additional 7 licenses are available via competitive bid.

Roughly half of those 15 licenses are already in use in the state. More are expected shortly. All three of the retail locations designated for sports betting have opened physical sportsbooks, too.

Michigan

Michigan first opened physical sportsbooks in 2020, but its splash into the online world in January 2021 cemented Michigan as a powerhouse in American sports betting. At the time, no other state had borne witness to as many online sportsbooks launching on the same day - a fateful Jan. 22, 2021, to be exact.

In only the first 10 days, Michigan bettors wagered more than $100 million. The industry has never looked back, and Michigan is now one of the only states to offer real money online casinos and poker alongside its sports betting, too.

There are now more than one dozen sportsbook sites that are active in Michigan. More might be coming, however, because there are still several casino locations in the state that are eligible to have sportsbooks and have not done so.

Mississippi 

Mississippi was one of the earliest states to open its doors for sports betting in 2018. However, since the debut, the state has remained committed to retail sports betting as the primary option. Online sports betting is technically legal — there is one active app in the state — but you can only bet via a mobile device if you are physically on the premises of a casino.

Montana

Montana is a rather unassuming state with roughly 1 million residents. So, it makes some degree of sense that its venture into sports betting has been equally unassuming so far.

Part of that unassuming aspect stems from the fact that Montana funnels all of its sports betting activities through its state lottery. There are hundreds of small sports betting kiosks available for in-person wagering, but only a single sportsbook site is active.

Unfortunately, Sports Bet Montana is a rather lackluster site to enjoy a monopoly over an entire state’s online market. Montana suffers from many of the same problems that Washington, D.C. does, in that both have a monopolistic sports betting site that commonly offers noncompetitive odds (-115 or worse) on most common sports bets.

Nebraska

Nebraska has legalized retail sports betting for its citizens and visitors, but no sportsbook is open for business yet. Regulators continue to work with casino interests in the state to plan out the logistics and practical concerns of accepting wagers at horse racing facilities in Nebraska. The June 2021 gambling expansion that permitted the implementation of retail sportsbooks at these locations did not, however, include provisions for online sports betting.

Nevada

Nevada’s presence on this list surprises no one. Nevada has offered online sports betting sites longer than any other state. The first online sportsbook in the state and, for that matter, the country launched all the way back in 2010.

However, Nevada offers sports betting differently than every other state due to the fact that it had no other blueprint to follow at the time. So, even though there are several online sports betting sites to find, you must register and make your first deposit in-person at the resident casino of your chosen app. If you live in Las Vegas, it might not be such a problem, but it’s an ordeal otherwise.

Nevada is also home to sportsbook brands that are found in few other places in the US. Alongside the standards like BetMGM and WynnBet, you can place bets with STN Sportsbook (Station Casinos), B-Connected (Boyd Gaming), and Atlantis Sports App (Atlantis Reno). Be aware, however, that none of these options are sites - all of them are strictly apps.

New Hampshire

New Hampshire’s liberty-centric mindset made its 2019 debut into sports betting fairly predictable. It’s even not that big of a shock that New Hampshire is one of the few states to allow 18-year-olds to bet on sports. However, the Granite State’s approach to legal sports betting has been anything but legal to predict.

When lawmakers first allowed sports betting to become a legal activity in the state, they specified that there could be no more than 5 online sports betting sites active in New Hampshire at any time. However, in a stroke of competitive ruthlessness, DraftKings struck a deal with the New Hampshire Lottery to allow DK a virtual monopoly over the state’s sports betting.

In return, DraftKings pledged to return 51% of its revenue to the state as taxes. Though there’s no law to allow for the monopoly, the contract is written such that DK’s tax burden drops precipitously if the NH Lottery allows competitors to enter the market. So, for the foreseeable future, your only online (and retail) sports betting option in New Hampshire is DraftKings Sportsbook.

New Jersey

Every state on this list owes New Jersey a large debt of gratitude. The Garden State’s dogged pursuit of sports betting against the federal government and its sports betting ban paved the way for the situation with sports betting that exists today.

New Jersey did not hesitate to launch both retail and online sports betting when the fateful May 2018 decision on PASPA came down from the US Supreme Court. The first online sportsbooks began to appear in August 2018, only a handful of weeks after the ruling.

Since then, New Jersey has arguably seized the mantle of America’s home for sports betting from Nevada. There are now nearly two dozen online sportsbooks, all representing the top shelf of American gambling brands.

New Mexico

New Mexico is an unusual member of the fraternity of states to allow sports betting before the end of 2018. That’s because it did not and has not placed a law on the books to allow sports betting. However, several of the tribes that call New Mexico home have claimed that the language of their compacts with the state and their rights under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allow them to offer retail sports betting. The tribes have not met with any serious resistance from state authorities on this matter so far. Online sports betting is not legal in New Mexico.

New York

New York has technically offered legal sports betting since 2019. However, the Empire State did not jump into the big leagues - online sports betting - until January 2022, almost three years after the first retail books opened in upstate New York.

Regardless of their tardiness, online sportsbooks in New York soon found themselves managing the flow of the biggest sports betting state in the country. New Yorkers routinely place nearly $2 billion in sports bets every single month, and the industry is already nearing the $1 billion mark for total revenue only 18 months after the online launch.

There are 9 online sportsbooks that you can choose to use in New York. As New York is the largest state (by population) with legal sports betting so far, it’s no surprise that the sportsbook sites available are nothing short of the cream of the crop.

North Carolina

North Carolina first legalized sports betting in 2019, although limited it to in-person wagering at the state's tribal casinos. At present, there are three tribal locations in North Carolina, all three of which now have retail sportsbooks.

In 2023, Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law new legislation to legalize online sports betting throughout the state. The law authorizes up to 12 online sportsbooks and several operators are already establishing partnerships to go live once they are able to do so.

The first online sportsbooks went live on March 11, 2024.

North Dakota

North Dakota sports betting occupies the same legal space as it does in New Mexico. There is no law on the books to allow for sports betting to proceed. However, several of the federally-recognized tribal groups in the state have offered onsite sports wagering on their tribal lands by arguing that their compacts with the state permit them to do so. So far, there has been no major pushback from state authorities on this point. Online sports betting remains illegal in North Dakota.

Ohio

Ohio has not been on the sports betting scene very long. Its first bets did not take place until New Year’s Day 2023. However, the Buckeye State has jumped into things with both feet in the time since then.

The launch came just over a year after Gov. Mike DeWine signed off on Ohio’s new sports betting law. The law allows for the possibility of as many as 25 online sportsbooks initially, and it is possible that more could be permitted if certain operators could demonstrate the economic need.

So far, there have been a dozen-and-a-half online launches in Ohio. You can find options for betting with top brands like DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars, FanDuel, and BetRivers, among others.

Oregon

Oregon has had sports betting online and live since 2019. However, the Beaver State is not a place to go for a tremendous variety of options. The only option right now is DraftKings, and it’s unlikely that any more sportsbook sites are headed to Oregon anytime soon.

Despite the fact that Oregon is a middle-sized state, its legal framework for sports betting is much closer to that of New Hampshire or Rhode Island. The entirety of the industry and the authorization to pursue it resides with the Oregon Lottery.

Perhaps the most curious aspect of sports betting in Oregon is that you can't bet on college football online (or any college sports), but you can do so if you bet in person. The Oregon Lottery does not permit collegiate wagering, but the tribal casinos in the state - the locations of the state’s retail sportsbooks - don’t have to follow what the lottery commission says.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a special place for sports betting, in that it is one of only a few states to legalize sports betting prior to the dissolution of the federal ban. The Pennsylvania General Assembly authorized both online and retail sports betting in 2017, pending the removal of the federal ban. Lawmakers were rewarded for their foresight in May 2018, and the PA law became active.

The first retail sportsbook opened its doors in November 2018, but online books did not begin to appear until the following May, roughly one year after sports betting became a decision for each state. However, the online sports betting sites quickly made up for lost time.

There are now more than 12 online sports betting sites in Pennsylvania. Almost all of them are big boys in the sports betting world, including BetRivers online sportsbook, which should be a very familiar name for those in PA.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island is one of the more surprising members of the fraternity of states which began offering sports betting in 2018, months after PASPA went the way of the dodo. However, Rhode Island’s foray into sports betting has been a gradual one, with lawmakers passing several revising laws to add or correct features of the original bill.

Like other small states, Rhode Island has a much more state-centric sports betting program than the competitive markets seen in nearby New Jersey or New York. The only available online sports betting site is Sportsbook Rhode Island, which is owned and operated by the Rhode Island Lottery.

However, no other state is more convenient for residents to place their bets in-person. Because of Rhode Island’s small land area, you are never more than an hour away from either Bally’s Twin River Lincoln or Bally’s Tiverton.

South Dakota

South Dakota allows sports betting in one of the most limited contexts in the entire nation. Sports betting in the Mount Rushmore State is confined to land-based casinos in Deadwood. It is possible that tribal locations in the state might also open sportsbooks of their own, but no mobile sports betting is possible at this time.

Tennessee

There may not be a more surprising state to have sports betting than Tennessee. The legalization in 2019 and launch in 2020 took almost everyone by surprise, in part because no one knew where in-person sportsbooks would go in a state without any casinos or racetracks.

As it turned out, Tennessee’s answer to that question was “we don’t need’em.” The Volunteer State became the first state to offer sports betting in an online-only context, and it remains one of the only states with no plans to expand into the retail space.

So far, the experiment has been a success. There are now nearly a dozen sportsbook sites doing business in Tennessee, including titans like BetMGM, Caesars, and FanDuel.

Vermont

Governor Phil Scott signed a bill into law in June 2023 authorizing online sports betting in Vermont. Later in the year, state regulators awarded licenses to three operators -- FanDuel, DraftKings, and Fanatics -- and all three launched online sportsbooks on Jan. 11, 2024.

The new law allows Vermont to have as many as six online sports betting sites total. Two other operators, BetMGM and ESPN Bet, have shown interest, but neither has been awarded a license as yet.

Virginia 

If Tennessee surprised everyone by moving forward with sports betting in the first place, Virginia shocked with how extensive an overhaul of its gambling profile it undertook (and is undertaking). Virginia launched sports betting as an online-only activity in January 2021, but only as part of a broader plan to open casinos in several towns around the state.

There are now more than one dozen sports betting sites active in Old Dominion. According to state law, the Commonwealth could ultimately support as many as 18 of them.

One of the more unusual aspects of Virginia’s approach to sports betting is its close tie with both existing and potential in-state professional sports teams. Virginia’s sports betting law is one of the only ones to include a sports betting license as an incentive to offer to a pro sports team if it agrees to relocate. So far, none have taken the state up on the offer, but you never know where a team might see a future.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., offers both online and retail sports betting. The only online sportsbook available district-wide is GambetDC, which the DC Lottery operates. There are also commercial online sportsbooks available, but they are only available in an area surrounding their partner sports teams’ stadiums. Retail sports betting is available at these stadiums, too, along with several bars and restaurants in the city.

Washington

Washington is now a sports betting state. The Evergreen State allows online and retail sports betting, but only on tribal casino lands. Online or retail sports betting is not legally available in most of the state.

West Virginia

West Virginia acted as the quiet first lieutenant to New Jersey in the historic battle to make sports betting a state-level decision. Thus, it is no surprise that West Virginia was part of the first group of states to offer legal sports betting in 2018, only a few months after the repeal of PASPA.

Since then, the small state has observed its roster of sportsbook sites grow to nine. There are also five active retail sportsbooks in the state - one at each of West Virginia’s casino locations.

West Virginians have no real restrictions on the wagers that they can make, save for the standard prohibition on high school sports. However, anyone who wishes to bet with a West Virginia online betting site must be 21 years old or more.

Wisconsin

The situation in Wisconsin is similar to the one in New Mexico, where sports betting is taking place on tribal lands without a broader law in place. Unlike New Mexico, the Wisconsin government has been amenable to pursuing a sports betting amendment with its resident tribes. The Oneida Nation is the first tribe to negotiate an amendment, and now offers retail and online sports betting on its tribal properties - though the online does not work outside the premises of an Oneida location. Other tribes in the state are interested in similar deals, but nothing is promising regarding statewide online or retail sports betting in the Wisconsin Legislature.

Wyoming

Wyoming’s online-only launch in 2021 was both momentous and anti-climactic. The state isn’t known for being especially progressive with regard to gambling, so it was a welcome surprise that sports betting launched. However, Wyoming’s paltry population meant that there really wasn’t much attention paid to its debut.

Nevertheless, there are four online sportsbook sites that call the Equality State home. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and Caesars all do business in Wyoming, so Wyoming inhabitants have a good, if limited, selection of possibilities.

Wyoming won’t always be an online-only state. There are tribal casinos in the western portion of the state’s lands that have indicated they plan to offer onsite sports betting in the future. However, it is not clear when they are going to open those particular doors.

States where sports betting is illegal 

Although sports betting is becoming a more widespread activity in the US, there are still several states that have yet to make definitive progress toward legalizing sports betting. Some of them seem interested but cannot find an equitable structure for all the stakeholders involved. Others have philosophical objections that make legalization at any point in the future less likely. Some — not all — of the states on the list below do allow DFS (daily fantasy sports).

If your state appears in the list below, click on its name to find out about the prospects for online sports betting’s arrival.

StateDaily Fantasy Sports
Alaska
Alabama
California
Georgia
Hawaii🚫
Idaho🚫
Minnesota
Missouri
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Texas
Utah🚫

Alaska 

Alaska does not permit its residents to bet on sports in either retail or online settings. Although the Last Frontier has an active sports betting bill on its legislative docket, there does not appear to be any groundswell of support behind it. The last major push for sports betting came in 2020, when Gov. Mike Dunleavy publicly advocated to allow the practice.

For now, Alaskans must console themselves with DFS options in the state. Although there is no explicit legalization of DFS in the Last Frontier, several top providers serve the state’s residents without much pushback from law enforcement or any other government agencies.

Alabama

Alabama lives up to its reputation as a conservative state by continuing to prohibit sportsbooks from operating in the state. However, there have been several prominent efforts to legalize sports betting in the Heart of Dixie, including a concerted push in 2021 that nearly succeeded. In the meantime, Alabamans can play DFS and bet on horse races online.

California

California is the largest state in the union and the biggest prize for enterprising sportsbook sites. However, although there is plenty of support for the concept of allowing sports betting in the Golden State, the powerful gambling interests in California are at cross purposes with one another and cannot agree to coexist in the administration of a new gambling activity. There is cause for hope, though, as two initiatives on the November 2022 ballot hope to legalize sports betting in California in one form or another.

Georgia

Georgia came quite close to passing a sports betting law in 2022, but lawmakers could not push the most promising bill across the finish line on the last day of the 2022 legislative session. Georgians will have to wait until 2024 at the earliest, but the near-miss provides hope that sports betting might be legal in Georgia before long.

Hawaii

The Aloha State is one of the least-friendly states for gambling in the US. There have been some legalization attempts in recent times, though, and lawmakers have been working on HB 1815, which would bring at least one sportsbook to the state. It is likely, however, that legalization of sports betting in Hawaii will take several years, if it happens at all.

Idaho

Idaho is a non-sports betting state and does not appear poised to change its status anytime soon. There have been no legislative efforts to legalize sports betting in the Gem State since the dismissal of PASPA in 2018.

Minnesota

Sports betting is not legal in Minnesota and won’t be so until at least 2024. A legislative effort to allow sports betting in the state failed on the last day of the 2022 legislative session. The key sticking point for lawmakers lies with the state’s tribal interests, which object to sharing sports betting with any non-tribal gambling venues in the Gopher State, such as racetracks.

Missouri

A last-ditch attempt to legalize sports betting in Missouri failed to pass the state Senate before the end of its most recent legislative session. During recent years there have been a half-dozen active sports betting bills on the Missouri General Assembly’s register. The aforementioned bill had already cleared the House but met a roadblock in the upper chamber. There is reason to hope that 2024 might be the year for the Show-Me State.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma does not allow sports betting at this time. Originally, Gov. Kevin Stitt renegotiated two tribal compacts to allow for sportsbooks on tribal lands, but this move provoked a disagreement between the governor and attorney general. A bill to legalize in March 2022 has stalled out in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and there is no timeline for a sports betting launch.

South Carolina

South Carolina remains one of the most gambling-hostile states in the nation. There are no plans to legalize sports betting in the state at this time, and it is unlikely any will surface soon.

Texas

All forms of sports betting remain illegal in Texas. Multiple bills came under consideration in the 2021 legislative session, but each failed to make it out of its respective committee. The Texas Legislature meets only during odd years, so sports betting cannot possibly become legal in the Lone Star State until 2025. However, several prominent sports betting companies, including PointsBet, have partnered with Texas sports teams in an effort to secure their position for any potential launch in the future. 

Utah

Utah may be the least gambling-friendly state in the country. The state’s deep connection with the Mormon faith — which prohibits gambling, among other things — makes any move to legalize sports betting unlikely to take root. It’s unlikely that sports betting will ever be part of the culture in Utah. 

How is sports betting legal now?

Unless you have a very short memory, you likely recall a time in the not-too-distant past when sports betting was illegal in the United States. In fact, before 2018, Nevada was the only place to make true sports bets. 

The Silver State’s near-monopoly existed in the US due to a specific federal law. The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, better known as PASPA, effectively banned all sports betting in the United States. However, because sports betting was already underway in Nevada (and in a limited capacity elsewhere - notably, Oregon), the law grandfathered the state’s sports betting as legal.

Needless to say, PASPA was a boon for Nevada. Other states, however, did not appreciate being cut out of the market. So, after roughly 20 years of PASPA’s presence as the law of the land, New Jersey passed a law to allow sports betting in the Garden State. 

Obviously, the law immediately came under fire in federal court, and - initially - was struck down as a violation of PASPA. However, in a bit of legislative ingenuity, New Jersey lawmakers then passed a law removing New Jersey’s prohibition on sports betting. When various sports leagues (primarily the NCAA) sued the Garden State again, the challenge wasn’t nearly the slam dunk it had previously been.

What New Jersey lawyers argued was that PASPA was unconstitutional because it violated the Tenth Amendment. Ironically, the argument stemmed from a Supreme Court decision that came down the same year that PASPA became law. 

In 1992, in New York v. United States, the court ruled that the Constitution prohibits the federal government from forcing states to pass or not to pass certain laws or enforce federal laws. This principle has come to be known as the “anti-commandeering” doctrine that lives within the meaning of the Tenth Amendment.

Although New Jersey had to take its own fight back to the Supreme Court, it ultimately prevailed with this argument in May 2018. Thus, PASPA was struck down as unconstitutional.

It’s important to understand what the demise of PASPA actually meant, however. It did not mean that sports betting became legal throughout the country. Instead, it merely relegated the decision about whether to allow sports betting back to the 50 state governments. 

So, while the majority of states have chosen to move forward with some form of sports betting since PASPA went away, the states that have resisted the urge (Utah, Hawaii, etc.) are perfectly within their rights to do so. If your state does not allow sports betting at this time, turn your attention to the folks in the state house, rather than in Washington. For once, the feds aren’t to blame.

Are all sports betting sites legal?

No. In fact, the exact lineup of sports betting sites that are legal varies wildly from state to state. In some states, only a single sports betting provider has authorization to do business. In others, there exists the potential for more than five dozen sportsbooks to operate under the confines of the law.

However, the presence of a legal framework for sports betting in your state does not automatically convey legality to a sports betting site. Every sports betting site active in the US must gain licensure and submit to regulatory control in each state where it does business. Even top operators may find themselves cut out of the action in some areas if they can’t or don’t get the proper authorization.

Furthermore, there are a host of sites that operate with no intention of seeking legality or complying with American regulation. These sites, collectively known as “offshore” sites, are so called because they maintain their headquarters and servers outside of the United States.

Although there is nothing inherently wrong with a foreign company doing business in the US, these outfits operate in a sort of legal gray zone. Since they are rarely subject to an explicit ban, they claim to be perfectly legal to operate in most of the 50 states.

However, the legal question for these sites misses the bigger concerns that they imply. Playing with an offshore site opens you up to the risk of both theft and identity fraud. Remember - online sports betting sites of all stripes require you to submit your most private personal and financial information in order to play. With an offshore site, you have no way to confirm that the site runners are honest businesspeople and are conscientious stewards of your data. 

If you were to run afoul of an offshore sports betting site, you could find yourself without much legal or regulatory recourse. Even if you got an American court to side with you and order the site to remedy the situation, the site could just thumb its nose at the ruling, safe in the fact that it is beyond American jurisdiction.

We strongly encourage you to confine your sports betting to legal sports betting sites only. Check with the gambling commission or default gaming regulator in your state for a complete list of the sportsbooks cleared to do business with you. Otherwise, you’re risking much more than your bets on the moneyline or spread.

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