US Sports Betting States Guide: Legalization & Laws Across America DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM
Sports betting has become the fastest-growing part of the U.S. gambling market. With PASPA repealed, states gained direct authority to regulate sports betting. PASPA’s repeal marked the start of the modern sports betting boom. Since then, dozens of states have legalized sports wagering, both IRL and online. For decades, it restricted sports betting to land-based venues only. The Wire Act targeted organized crime and interstate sports betting.
This guide discusses how virtual sports are bet on with odds produced from the best online wagering sites and displayed with third-party streaming services. Soccer fans will appreciate our guide to the best soccer betting sites online. Over time, sports betting grew increasingly popular and the demand for legal betting options grew. PASPA was overturned by the SCOTUS in 2018, and now each state can choose to legalize or prohibit sports betting at their pleasure. Below, you will find information about the most popular options that are available to wager on right now, where to do it legally online, and what kind of sportsbook bonus offers are available.
Sports betting operators have no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. BettingInUnitedStates may earn a commission when readers click outbound links and register with sportsbook operators. Michigan, Colorado, and Nevada allow unrestricted college betting. Pennsylvania (36%), Illinois (20-40% tiered plus per-bet fees), Massachusetts (20%), Ohio (20%), and New Jersey (19.75% online, raised in July 2025) also have elevated rates. You must be physically located in a legal state to place a bet.
Louisiana retail sports betting went live on Halloween 2021 and former Saints quarterback Bobby Herbert placed the first bet. There are no pending gambling bills for the legislators to consider currently, so it looks like sports betting won’t come to Idaho any time soon. Idaho forbids sports betting and other forms of gambling, as per its statutes. HB 736 sponsored by Rep. Sean Quinlan, would have created a pilot program for mobile sports betting in Hawaii. It was also the first state to approve full-scale sports betting after the fall of PASPA and has offered sports betting parlay cards dating back to 1976.
We also review state laws, regulatory announcements, legislative records and market changes to keep our legal resources current. An online sportsbook’s banking options affect how quickly customers can fund their accounts, claim promotions, and receive their winnings. Our political betting guide explains common markets, how odds are determined, and the factors that may affect election prices over time. Political betting markets allow you to wager on elections, party leadership contests, cabinet appointments, referendums and other government-related outcomes. From predicting the winning couple to betting on eliminations and season-long outcomes, our Love Island betting guide breaks down the most popular wagering opportunities. Explore how these wagers work and where you can find MasterChef betting odds online.
There was some excitement surrounding the prospect of the live betting innovations the product would make. However, after failing to capture a significant market share and playing second fiddle to Flutter’s other offering – FanDuel – FOX Bet closed its doors in 2023. A collaboration between FOX Sports and betting giant Flutter, FOX Bet was available in 4 states for a number of years.
Some states allow online sports betting but prohibit online casinos or poker, while others allow only in-person betting. The online sports betting sites from offshore remain available here. While bettors in the Lone Star State can enjoy online sports betting, three major horse racing tracks, and several casinos, offline sports betting remains unapproved. You can also use their sports betting app, or any of the widely available sports betting sites, The legal gambling age in Big Sky Country is 18.
bet365 Sportsbook (Best for Experienced Bettors)
The state is also home to plenty of casinos and horse tracks, which struggle to compete with the online betting sites. Tribal casinos can now host sports betting, though there are no plans to launch mobile betting here. Anyone 21 and over in South Dakota can enjoy the casinos or online betting sites.
- North Carolina’s sports betting landscape transformed with the launch of online wagering on March 11, 2024, allowing residents to place bets from their devices statewide.
- The bill signed into law by Gov. Pete Ricketts in June 2021 only allows for in-person betting.
- However, you do need to be physically situated within state borders at the time you are wagering real money.
- During the years when federal prohibition was in effect, a massive offshore sports betting industry flourished as offshore online sportsbooks catered to American bettors.
- There are only four states that are allowed to have legal state-sponsored betting, leaving the other 46 without any domestic options (like brick-and-mortar sportsbooks or through the state Lottery).
- An open market with dozens of sports betting options has Arizona punching well above its weight in the U.S. sports betting landscape.
This is another one of the few states that allows online sportsbooks but does not include any retail locations. West Virginia has some of the least restrictive sports betting laws in the country, with few bet types off-limits other than college player props. Rhode Island has limited sportsbook options, but there is online betting within the state through Sportsbook Rhode Island. You must be 21 years of age to place bets in the Buckeye State and claim Ohio sports betting promos. As long as you’re playing at online sportsbooks at retail locations, you can take advantage of these Mississippi sportsbook promos. Online sports betting in the traditional sense is not available in Mississippi; users can bet with select apps but only on-premises at sportsbook locations.
Caesars is allowed inside Capital One Arena, BetMGM has a retail sportsbook at Nationals Park, and FanDuel has a retail sportsbook at Audi Field, home of DC United. GambetDC serves as the capital’s official mobile app for wagering in the District, but you can only bet within certain clearly defined geographical locations. That, according to Action Network, keeps out other sportsbooks that can “jeopardize competitive prices.” Betting began in Montana in March 2020. It was a staggered launch, with seven sportsbooks launching from the start.
One operator means no line shopping and no promo competition, so New Hampshire bettors consistently take worse prices than neighbours in Massachusetts. It secured court orders against both Kalshi and Polymarket, and the Nevada Supreme Court denied Kalshi’s emergency stay request on July 5, 2026. Nevada has been the most aggressive state in the country against prediction markets. On May 18, 2026, Gov. Tim Walz signed SF4760, making Minnesota the first state in the country to formally ban prediction markets. In-state college games are only bettable when the school is in a tournament with four or more teams, such as March Madness.
No new sports betting bills were introduced in 2025, and nothing advanced in 2026 either. It is legal to bet on sports in Arkansas, both online and in person. There is no legal sports gambling market in the state of Alabama. You can take the poll below and see where public opinion lies concerning the expansion of domestic sports betting in the US.
Despite their simplicity, lotteries remain one of the most accessible and widely enjoyed gambling forms in the country. Online platforms make it easier for players to buy tickets, check results, and manage winnings from anywhere in legal states. Lotteries are among the oldest and most widely played forms of gambling in the USA. This includes West Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. To protect user privacy, the systems would only check a user’s age during login or before placing a bet, without storing or sharing any personal biometric identity data.
Despite the lack of domestic options, offshore sportsbooks accept players in these states without breaking any existing laws. Locally regulated sports betting remains unavailable in the states highlighted in the map above. The Olympics is just around the corner, and we’ve updated our guide to include the most reputable USA-friendly sportsbooks that offer odds for the Summer and Winter Games.
This measure would be the highest tax on sports betting in the country. Nevada is still the gambling capital of the US, and Las Vegas is home of the land-based casino resort and sportsbook. Online betting in the state is gaining ground with websites and mobile betting apps. The first sportsbook in the Silver State was opened in 1949 along with live and off-track betting on horse racing. Legal sports betting in Colorado originated in November of 2019 when state residents passed Proposition DD. In October of 2019, Oregon introduced ScoreBoard as the state’s legal online sportsbook.
BettingUSA’s expert team conducts online sportsbook reviews that are unbiased, straightforward, and factual. That decision ended a years-long legal battle pitting the state of New Jersey against federal law, the NCAA, and the four major professional sports leagues. Then on June 14, 2018, two sportsbooks opened for business in New Jersey — at Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport and at the MGM-operated Borgata Race & Sports Book in Atlantic City. The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make. (Three other states — Delaware, Montana and Oregon — had some limited forms of sports gambling “grandfathered” under PASPA, allowing them to continue.) Where kiosks are offered you can redeem your winnings at the machine or at the sportsbook ticket window.
That means you don’t need to worry about waiting in line or dealing with sportsbook tellers. If you have found a sportsbook you’d like to use, there are a few steps to follow to create your account. If you are looking for new betting options, be sure to compare welcome bonuses before making your final selection. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks that are important to consider before choosing a new sportsbook.
Retail sportsbooks are coming too, but will need a few years to get off the ground. After a long roll-out, Tennessee finally accepted its first legal bets on November 1, 2020. The first retail books opened in November 2018, but online bettors had to wait until May of 2019.
Check out our legal sports betting state tracker below to find out which states are up-and-running, and which states are not. Many in states with legal betting still use offshore sportsbooks anyway for convenience. Texas remains the most closely watched sports betting state because the market would be huge, with major teams, national operators, and business groups all interested in legalization.
However, if you use a reputable offshore gambling site, you can safely and legally enjoy all these markets – and more! If you want the best horse betting app experience, the sites listed here are all Thoroughbred champions! No domestic US sportsbook offers these odds, which is just another great reason to play offshore. Sports sims are just like virtual sports (i.e. no human input), but when you wager on simulated sports, you’re betting on real players and teams from popular video game series like Madden, FIFA, NBA 2K, and more. New online casino games are launched regularly, but the most popular games of 2022 so far are the virtual slot titles “Gods of Luxor” and “Pandas Go Wild,” both of which can be found in the Bovada network of sites. These are real online casino operations that employ cutting-edge RNG (random number generation) technology and offer real-money play to the vast majority of US residents.
Despite being the historic centre of US gambling, Nevada is now a mid-sized online market by handle. Nevada launched online betting in 2010, eight years before any other state. Committee Chairman David Blount has consistently blocked these efforts and holds his seat until 2028, so statewide mobile betting is unlikely before the 2027 session at the absolute earliest.
The industry has expanded rapidly thanks to partnerships between professional leagues, casinos, and leading sportsbook operators. It limited the Wire Act’s reach to sports betting, not all gambling. Trusted offshore casinos and sportsbooks have operated for decades, building reputations as safe alternatives where state-regulated options are limited.
DraftKings Launches ‘My Budget Builder’ to Support Safer Gambling
Each of the major sports leagues — including NASCAR with its own “data deal” with Betgenius — are seeking and cutting deals related to sports betting. All in all, sports betting increases viewership, engagement, and the value of advertising on television and digital streaming. The present and future of U.S. sports betting will be shaped by the consumers — the American people — but also in large part by the various players who make the gears of sports and sports betting turn. Prop 27, which was voted on in the November 2022 election, was a failure of epic proportion, sending California sports betting efforts back to the drawing board.
Before that decision, Nevada was essentially the only state with full-scale legal sports betting. The modern landscape of legal sports betting states began in May 2018, when the U.S. Where in the United States is sports betting legal, and where can you place your wagers online?
BetLucky.com was the first online sports betting site in the state, but it shut down in March of 2019. The Virginia Lottery controls the legal sports betting in the state, and it is legal to bet on professional and college sports. Delaware Park Casino, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway & Casino all had legal sportsbooks to go along with horse racing and casino games. As the only New England state that does not have legal sports betting, Vermont is slowly changing with the times. Rhode Island was one of the first states to legalize retail sports betting since the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the states.
The law was signed in June 2021, officiallymaking the practice legal in the said 55 parishes. There is no restriction on who can place wagers on Indiana betting apps, even for non-residents; they only have to be physically present inIndiana and at least 21 years old. Many don’t recommend offshore betting because sketchy books could take your funds. Online books are great options for bettors without https://www.pokernewsdaily.com/sportsbooks/ local books or state betting. Sports betting proposals have not cleared the Senate, and any serious push would still need to move through the legislature before voters could approve a constitutional amendment. Some restrictions apply, including limitations when it comes to betting on in-state college teams and individual college athletes.
New Jersey is one of the most gambling-friendly states in the country. They do, however, have a casino with a floating golf green! Georgia remains one of the strictest states when it comes to gambling. Any 21 years of age or older may gamble on or offline in Delaware. New York state has plenty of brick-and-mortar places to bet. You can find all the details of where and how to bet in Illinois.