Gambling in the United States of America has a long history. During the days of the country’s youth, boxing was a sport that people regularly wagered on. In the time of the Old West, saloons played host to all manner of dice and card games. In these more modern times, people love to drop money on their favorite sports team for the big championship game. However, for most of the USA’s existence, gambling was largely illegal. That’s changed in the past year with the phenomenon of online sports betting.
The Old PASPA Law
Up until recently, the US forbade gambling outside of tribal casinos, Las Vegas, or smaller forms like the lottery. Casino games couldn’t legally be played for money outside of casinos and sports betting wasn’t allowed anywhere outside of Vegas. This changed in 2018, when the Supreme Court repealed PAPSA. The end of PASPAmeant that states were free to decide on gambling laws for themselves. As expected, many jumped at the chance to make gambling legal right away. Not just that, but online casinos and sports betting were fast tracked.
Of course, laws often take a long time to pass. Even if the measure is voted on rather quickly, implementing it in actual practice takes some time. It didn’t help that soon after PASPAwas repealed, the Covid pandemic ground the entire world to a halt. For lawmakers, the priority became relief efforts and managing the pandemic. This meant that gambling legislation had to wait until 2021. So even though PASPAwas repealed in 2018, gambling legislation didn’t truly change until 2021.
What we saw in 2021 was a lot of laws passed that granted sportsbook platforms licenses, but not until 2022. February 2022 became a popular target as it was just in time for the Super Bowl. Now a handful of states allow online casinos, while the majority have legal sports betting.
Sports Betting Is A Hot Ticket All Over The Country
Online casinos have seen opposition all over the country, but sports betting laws have had an easy time getting passed. Passion for sports is common across the US, as is the appeal of gambling. The states currently without legal sports betting are Alaska, Idaho, California, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine.
One benefit to the staggered acceptance of sports betting legislation is that it lets us see the results in states that adopted it first. Legal sports betting has been a huge success, bringing millions in revenue a month to most states that have it. New York went over a billion. This breakout success even applies in states like Arkansas that aren’t known as cosmopolitan culture hubs. Arkansas sports betting has taken off in the face of recent sports successes like the current March Madness tournament. People are spending and the local economy is seeing a big boost as a result. Due to this great success seen in sports betting states, other states are becoming more convinced to change their sports betting legislation.
The Change In Gambling Legislation
So to sum up, the change in gambling legislation is a wider acceptance of gambling, particularly online gambling and sports betting. Big profits are being reported in US states, and this is encouraging other states and even parts of Canada to get more invested in sports betting. Ontario is about to expand its own sports betting legislation to include more experimental forms of sports like esports. The future looks bright for gambling, and busy for those who write and pass gambling legislation.