Sports gambling laws and regulations
Sports gambling laws differ from place to place. In the United States, sports gambling is considered illegal practically in most states save a few like Nevada, Montana etc. The legality and general acceptance of sports betting is highly regulated in numerous European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans need to know how to bet tax-free – great info at GertGambell.net. “Sports gambling” is regarded by legalized sports gambling proponents as being a sports hobby for sports fans to enhance their fascination with a sporting event thus becoming a big benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are many sites that are respectable that will not allow US residents to bet through them although with the appearance of the internet and offshore gambling sites it is getting tough to govern the sports gambling actions of Americans. For quite a while the US argued against the internet gambling legalities by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to halt sports gambling activities between states by making use of wire containing devices along with the telephone. Because the internet was not yet invented at that time, legal experts today question whether regulations actually pertained to the internet services or not.
The Justice Department of the US however claimed 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 raise the US port security. Attached to it 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.
What was important was the reality that the act dealt just with the funding of internet gambling accounts and not the actual placing of the bet. Thus an Internet betting law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that the bill that was passed had no impact on the betting activity of the person but centered only around the restriction of certain transactions which were financial and concerning the banks and internet gambling sites. Thus the bill did not make internet gambling illegal nevertheless it made funding ones bet or wager on the internet sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction instead of the actual act of betting by 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 also at the same time 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 country of Antigua and Barbuda in 2003 registered 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 net) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled for their favor and though the United States appealed the initial ruling was upheld on plenty of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million and the right to penalize the US copyright and trademark laws.