Sports gambling laws
Sports betting laws are different from country to country. In the United States, sports gambling is considered illegal in most states save a few like Nevada, Montana etc. The legality and general acceptance of sports gambling is highly regulated in numerous European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans must know the best way to bet tax-free – excellent info at GertGambell.net. “Sports gambling” is considered by legalized sports gambling proponents as a sports hobby for sports fans to increase their fascination with a sporting event thus being a big benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are plenty of sites that are respectable that do not allow US citizens to bet through them but with the advent of the internet and offshore gambling websites it truly is getting more difficult to govern the sports gambling activities of Americans. For quite a while the United States argued up against the internet gambling legal issues by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to halt sports gambling activities between states by using wire containing devices along with the telephone. Considering that the internet was not yet invented during those times, legal experts today question whether regulations actually pertained to the net services or not.
The Justice Department of the US however claimed that the Wire Act did refer to all types of online or internet gambling. In 2006, The congress wrote the SAFE Port Act and passed it to increase the United States port security. Attached with it was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that prohibited US residents from utilization of electronic fund transfer or checks, credit cards etc to finance any internet gambling activity.
What was important was the reality that the act dealt only with the funding of internet gambling accounts rather than the specific placing of the bet. Thus an Internet betting law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that the bill which was passed had no impact on the betting activity of the individual but centered only around the restriction of specific transactions that were financial and concerning the banks and internet gambling sites. Thus the bill failed to make internet gambling illegal nevertheless it made funding ones bet or wager on the web sites illegal criminalizing the financial transaction instead of the specific act of betting by the individual.
Rep Barney Frank then introduced in 2007, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act in order 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 on the web and collect tax on all bets made.
The country of Antigua and Barbuda in 2003 filed a complaint against the US with the World Trade Organization the US (based upon their sports gambling laws and ban on betting on the net) violated their WTO rights. The WTO ruled in their favor and though the US appealed the original ruling was upheld on lots of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million and the right to penalize the US copyright and trademark laws.