Sports betting laws and regulations
Sports gambling laws differ from country to country. In the United States, sports gambling is regarded as illegal practically in most states save some like Nevada, Montana etc. The legitimacy and general acceptance of sports betting is extremely regulated in numerous European countries though not criminalized, but Europeans need to know how to bet tax free – excellent info at GertGambell.net. “Sports gambling” is considered by legalized sports gambling proponents as being a sports hobby for sports fans to increase their fascination with a sporting event thus becoming a big benefit to leagues, teams and players etc.
There are many sites that are reputable that do not allow US citizens to bet through them although with the appearance of the internet and offshore gambling websites it is getting tough to govern the sports gambling activities of Americans. For quite a while the United States argued against the internet gambling legal issues by citing the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 passed to halt sports gambling activities between the states by using wire containing devices and the telephone. Because 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 the Wire Act did relate to all forms 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 usage of electronic fund transfer or checks, credit cards etc to fund any internet betting activity.
The thing that was important was the reality that the act dealt just with the funding of internet betting accounts rather than the specific placing of the bet. Therefore an Internet gambling law attorney Lawrence Walters stated that the bill that was passed didn’t have effect on the gambling activity of the individual but focused only on the restriction of certain transactions that 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 at the same time Rep.es McDermott introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act to control 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 on 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 plenty of occasions. The WTO awarded Antigua and Barbuda trade sanctions worth $21 million and the right to penalize the United States copyright and trademark laws.