History of unlawful gambling in sports
The United States has a long history of illegal gambling in sports. Gambling scandals and political control have led to the prohibition and regulating sports gambling in the US. Laws that related to sports gambling and other standards have been changing and these changes are actually described as “Waves”. The first of these waves was in the Colonial Period that lasted till the 1800s. The next wave came about following the US Civil war up until the early Twentieth century. The third of these waves started in the Great Depression till date.
Sports gambling has always been illegal in America. Puritan attitudes during the Colonial era were adopted towards sports and also other gambling, possessing cards, gaming tables, dice etc. Later on it was only allowed if it had not been a trade but only innocent recreation. Early settlers had the view that gambling was only a harmless hobby. Gambling was likened to the frontier spirit as each of them involved opportunism, risk taking and high expectations.
Illegal sports gambling has become linked to mobsters and organized crime in the United States. Illegal sports gambling was a huge business for gang mobsters in the 1920s and 1930s. Organized bookmaking systems were set up by organized crime all over the nation. Horse racing betting shot to popularity in those times.
In 1931 Nevada legalized casino gambling and here too organized crime took control of all of the casino betting business. Mobsters operated illegal nationwide wire services Trans America Wire and Continental Wire Service. Mobsters such as infamous Al Capone set up their own wire services to prevent gamblers from getting any benefit of delays by making sure they posted winning bets before official results were out.
The Federal Government of the usa cracked upon mobsters and organized crime over the 1950s and drove them out of the Nevada Casino gambling industry. But this would not deter the organized crime mobsters who took over illegal bookmaking. Law Enforcement authorities do acknowledge that independent bookies are operating in the nation but it is evident that organized crime still manages all the big bucks in betting.
Animal fights furthermore have a long history in the US despite the bad reputation it has. Most animal fights involve dog fights and cock fights that have become favored by street gangs and big numbers of weapons and money are usually present in the course of these fights.
History of illegal gambling in sports uncovers that cockfighting was illegal and banned by most states in the US during the 1800s. It is still illegal today in 48 states. Legal issues in Minnesota makes any king of gambling bet Illegal. Thus any type of card game where one has to spend to participate in a game and possess chances to win cash is a “bet” and therefore also considered to be illegal gambling. It is important to note that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 only deals with the funding of internet gambling not the specific act of betting.