Will I Go to Jail If I Bet on Sports In The U.S.?

No, you will not go to jail for betting on sports in America. There is over a million Americans that bet on sports every month over the internet, and a whole lot more during the NFL season. Laws do exist making these types of bets illegal, including the Federal Wire Act, a law called PAPSA that also affects bets on collegiate sports, and state laws against online gambling. But, no one has gone to jail or been arrested for online sports betting in America. The government does not want to arrest a million people for simply betting on a sporting event, they would rather go after the owners of the online sportsbooks themselves.

It is hard to tell if the government even knows if it is legal for U.S. residents to bet sports online. The laws that exist were wrote long before the internet and that makes it hard for the government to claim that it is illegal to bet on sports.

Sometimes, individual bettors run into trouble with their sports betting habit when their finances are investigated, as part of an IRS audit, divorce proceedings, bankruptcy cases, or other forms of financial investigation. People who place sports bets sometimes have to pay fines when it is discovered, through legal audit or as part of a divorce hearing, that they have been placing illegal sports bets. The main thing that happens is that the government wants to look and make sure that the person has paid all of the taxes that they should be. Still, no sports bettor has ever been jailed for wagering on NFL, NBA, College Football, MLB, or any other sports in the United States for that matter.

One way to keep yourself out of trouble for betting on sports on US soil is to do business with the sports betting sites listed on this site. All of our sports betting sites are known for their discretion, and go out of their way not to share any of your personal information, including your betting history, with any outside authority, unless it is legally required for them to do so.

The simple truth is that no one has ever done jail time for wagering on sports using their computer and Internet connection. Even in state where laws exist making all forms of Internet wagering illegal (states like Louisiana and Washington, for example) no citizens have ever been prosecuted using these laws. While it is best to check your state's law books for language making Internet bets illegal and therefore unsafe, if you went to jail for betting using a sports betting site that accepts US players, you'd be the first person to do so. That makes it completely unlikely that a sports bettor would ever find himself in jail for laying down a few bucks on the outcome of the big Alabama / LSU game or any other game of chance.

Who Will Go to Jail for Sports Betting in the USA?

The federal government is clearly intent on shutting down illegal gambling and sports betting websites. In 2011, many people were arrested, website domains seized, and player accounts frozen when the Department of Justice cracked down on illegal poker operations in America. None of the people who got in trouble were members of the sites--only the hosts and operators and their associates went to jail or were forced to pay fines.

The short answer is this: the only people who will go to jail for betting on sports in America are hosts or providers of sports betting, online casino games, Internet poker, or other games of chance declared illegal by federal or state law. As long as you are not the owner/operator of a sports betting site, it is extremely unlikely that you will go to jail for betting on sports on the Internet in America.

Go to our homepage: www.LegalOnlineSportsBetting.com

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