Gambling Legislation by State in the US and Canada

No matter which region bettors find themselves visiting in both Canada and America, they are bound to find some sort of online gambling offered. America is quickly becoming the online gambling metropolis with Canada showing signs of following suit. More Americans are turning to their mobile devices and laptops to access online gambling in its many forms and shapes. More states are currently in the process of legalizing online gambling, launching sports betting and featuring the latest and newest online casino platforms. US players first visited online casinos that were based in places such as the Isle of Man and Antiguan 1994. In 1996, Canada’s First Nations team started online casinos in Quebec and Montreal.

States That Have Yet to Join the Online Movement

Sports betting is one of the more sought after forms of online gambling in certain states in America. California, Maine, Massachusetts, Florida, Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky are in the process of strategizing with lawmakers, senators and government to pass laws and legislature to legalize sports betting. In most of these states, bills have been proposed and voters have been tallied in favour of these referendums but lawmakers in the states are neither here nor there when it comes to finding out exactly when the industry will launch.

There are, however, states have managed to provide their residents with sports betting at land-based venues for the time being. These states have had no luck with getting the gambling legislature to approve online wagering. New York, Mississippi, Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina and New Mexico have all tried to get the sports betting scene online, but to no avail. Even though voters have declared that they would want online sports betting offered in these states it seems unlikely that this goal will come to fruition soon.

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States That Have Launched Online Wagering

Michigan, Delaware, West Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are the only states where all three forms of online gambling are being offered presently. The five states all offer their players and residents Online Sports Betting, Online Poker and Online Casinos. New Jersey who generates over $225 million per annum has been identified as the state with the biggest online gambling market in the U.S. Indiana, New Hampshire, Iowa, Oregon, Colorado, Rhodes Island, Tennessee, Montana, Illinois and Washington D.C have all managed to successfully launch a legal and regulated online Sports Betting industry but not much else. In most of these states the online option was made available as a result of the lottery already being played in the respective state. Most establishments where the lottery is allowed will not be permitted to conduct any other forms of online gambling from their premises. However, land-based operators have inked lucrative and strategic partnership deals with premium sportsbook providers such as BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and Pointsbet.

Lottery

The lottery the only game of chance that is allowed to be played legally in all the states in the U.S and Canada, with the latter offering some of the best Canadian casino websites run by off-shore operators to cater the gambling market. In Georgia, the Lottery Corporation allows patrons to play other forms of online games such as Fantasy 5, Mega Millions and Powerball. Keno games are also allowed in conjunction with Georgia Lottery Corporation’s Diggi Games. In Illinois, Lotto and Mega Millions tickets went on sale in March 2012; along with this the site also sold Powerball tickets. It was in April 2014 that the first record amount of $36.9 million in online ticket sales was announced, after just two years of the game offering going live. In 2014, Michigan announced that its first online tickets were sold for a game called instant Keno. The tickets could be purchased by residents via their mobile devices and computers. Later, in 2016, the Mega Millions 47, Powerball and Fantasy 5 tickets were available online to anyone older than 18, which is the legal lottery gambling age. In Kentucky, in 2016, online ticket for daily draw games and jackpots were finally made available. The state took a total of 3 years and some months to design the game’s intricate system, which does not allow winners to access their winnings, because of the very strict laws regarding money laundering in the state.