The United States of America is undergoing a lot of change lately, and one of the more positive changes is a greater acceptance of gambling laws. Almost every state (with Utah being the one exception) has had legal gambling for years in the form of scratch tickets or lottery. Some were even allowed to have casinos. Recently, every state was given the option of legalizing online casinos and sports betting platforms. Each state has responded in its own way, leaving citizens to wonder when and if they’ll get to play along. Here’s the current breakdown on how gambling works in the USA.
Online Gambling Legalization
The US used to have a federal prohibition that restricted gambling save to tribal casinos and resort areas like Las Vegas and Atlantic City. In 2018, the Supreme Court repealed the prohibition, making it so the individual states could draft their own gambling laws. Several states seized on the chance right away, passing measures with special attention paid to online gamlbing and sportsbook apps.
Sports betting was one of the bigger focuses of this initiative as it might be the most profitable form of gambling. In the months following legalized online sports betting, states have posted millions in revenue on a monthly basis from sports betting alone. Americans have been betting on sports for generations, but it was usually done in the form of cash pools amongst friends or office mates. Putting it online opened it up to many new groups of sports fans. The popularity of fantasy sports in recent years has also been a huge contributor, with many apps dedicated to fantasy leagues.
The Buzz About Sports Betting
State governments could see how much money sports betting brings in and made it a point to legalize it. As of now, the majority of states already have legal sports betting or have measures in the works. The only ones that don’t are Alaska, Idaho, California, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine. And of those, quite a few have shown interest in sports betting but just need to navigate some tricky legal processes.
The results for the early adopters showed big numbers from the start. States like Michigan and Pennsylvania, despite not being gambling giants like Vegas, made millions in sports betting and online casino revenue. Some months even showed them rivaling Atlantic City, a gambling icon of the US. Few imagined the day when online gambling PA would be a contender on a national scale. But that’s the reality: people all over the country want to partake in sports betting.
Why Online Gambling Is So Big
Online gambling is just a digital version of what you can already do in casinos across the world, and betting on sports has been a thing for years. So why is online gambling suddenly such a profitable venture?
The foremost reason is, naturally, the convenience of it all. When gambling was mostly restricted to lottery and casinos, many rural areas had no means of gambling other than buying a mega millions ticket every now and again. That gets old fast. With online gambling, however, almost anyone over 18 can choose from a variety of table and slots games from their phone or tablet. As you can guess, this introduces the possibility of gambling to millions and ups the usership almost overnight. The goal of any industry is to constantly increase its potential market, and taking gambling online did just that. It’ll only continue to increase as more states legalize online gambling. Look out for gambling, not crypto, to become the big industry of 2022.
