There are currently no laws prohibiting you from making
a wager over the internet. Through all the years of online gambling,
I have never heard of anyone getting into trouble because they placed
a bet over the internet either sports betting or casino. What the law
states is that it is illegal to take bets (bookie) and not place bets.
The most controversial topic when it comes to online gambling on the
1961 Wire Act.
The statute that most directly restricts the use of the Internet to place
bets is the Wire Wager Act. This Act directly prohibits the use of a wire
transmission facility to foster a gambling pursuit. It provides, in part:
Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly
uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or
foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing
of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission
of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or
credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the
placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned
not more than two years, or both.
Two different views of this statute can be taken. Some regulatory advocates
feel that this statute broadly covers any interstate use of the Internet
that is related to placing or receiving bets. Support for this assertion
is found in the emphasis placed upon the following phrase: "use" of
a wire facility. For example, if this law does indeed apply to online
wagering, a bookmaker would violate the act simply by emailing a point
spread across state lines if the purpose was to assist "in the placing
of bets."
Challengers to the applicability of this Act point to two issues. First,
the words "wire communication facility" only apply to transmissions
that use wires. Currently, wireless Internet access is already being
provided by cellular phone companies and with handheld computers. The
proliferation of such services is inevitable. The Wire Wager Act would
not apply to companies that allow wagering or provide information to
assist in a wager through a wireless service. Second, the Act might only
apply to wagering upon sporting events (not card games or other games
based upon chance). The first portion of the Act refers to "bets
or wagers on any sporting event or contest." However, only a few
phrases later the Act becomes more expansive by referring generally to "bets
or wagers." The legislative history on the Act suggests that the
purpose of the Act was to regulate sports betting and activities, like
numbers games, that were related to organized crime. Nevertheless, the
challenge is a valid one.
Another relevant shortcoming in the Wire Wager Act is its significance
only to those "being engaged in the business of betting or wagering." This
phrase limits the act to professional bookmakers who set up online facilities.
Excluded would be online gamblers, Internet service providers, and those
arranging for wagering without making a profit (office pools, for example).
Despite these limitations, the Wire Wager Act contains language that
is broad enough to allow the law to serve as the primary basis in the
attempt to hold operators of online gambling operations criminally liable.
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