States with Legal Sports Betting US Map & Updated Guide 2026
OklahomaOnline sports betting is not yet legal in Oklahoma.OregonOnline sports betting is live and legal in Oregon.PennsylvaniaOnline sports betting is live and legal in Pennsylvania. North DakotaOnline sports betting is live and legal in North Dakota.OhioOnline sports betting is legal but not yet operational in Ohio. North CarolinaOnline sports betting is live and legal in North Carolina. New MexicoOnline sports betting is live and legal in New Mexico.
The legal age for sports betting is 21 in most states. Before this ruling, Nevada was the only state where single-game sports betting was legal. However, some states only permit retail (in-person) betting at physical locations like casinos. Online sports betting is legal in over 30 states currently. Have legalized sports betting in some form. Have legalized sports betting in some form (Missouri became the 39th in late 2025).
Some are 18+, while others require a minimum age of 21 to join and gamble, and this is determined by the laws of their home country or their regulatory body. This guide covers everything from downloading a digital wallet to sending coins online. Boxing has long been one of the most popular sports, and today, that statement still stands true.
New Jersey mounted a challenge to PASPA beginning with a law enacted in 2012 seeking to decriminalize sports betting. When PASPA took effect, active sports betting laws in Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon were grandfathered in. PASPA was passed in 1992, took effect in 1993 and prohibited all but four states from legalizing or regulating sports betting. Today, we’ll discuss how those laws have impacted sports betting in the USA and provide an overview of each. As technology evolves, sportsbooks continue to improve features, promotions, and live betting options.
An Indian tribe may conduct Class II gaming if that form of gaming is permitted anywhere inside the state in which the tribe is located. The IGRA leaves Class I gaming solely in the hands of Indian tribes, who may regulate it as they see fit. After California v. Cabazon affirmed Indian tribes’ right to conduct gaming, Congress stepped in with the IGRA to establish a framework under which Indian tribes may conduct gaming but still provide some measure of federal oversight. The Federal Government should prevent interference by one State with the gambling policies of another, and should act to protect identifiable national interests; and The Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978 (IHA) was passed to protect the legality of horse wagers placed across state lines. The UIGEA was signed into law by President George W. Bush in October of 2006.
Before you make an initial deposit, sit down and determine how much you can safely afford to bet. The new bill gives the major Minnesota Tribes exclusive rights and should help the bill become law in 2023. While many are still working toward full legalization, more states make the change each year. If you use a welcome bonus with a “no-sweat” or “risk-free” bet, you will see those funds added after your first bet. If you aren’t sure which bonus or promo is best for you, here is a quick list of some of the pros and cons of the four common offerings. While there is no official league for Horse Racing, plenty of races are available to bet on.
Kansas launched its retail and mobile market in September 2022 after a short regulatory setup, timed deliberately to beat the start of the NFL season. Hard Rock Bet remains the only online sportsbook in Florida, and that is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. Florida launched a legal market briefly between November and December 2021 before a federal judge ruled against the agreement between the state and the Seminole Tribe. Retail bets started in October of that year, with mobile following soon after.
Be sure to explore the incredible offers with the BetMGM bonus code. To win the bet, the team you’re backing must make it through to the finals and then win. You would usually place a futures bet during the season for the final game.
The sportsbook’s oddsmakers will set a game’s spread as either a negative or positive number. Although these are very straightforward bets, they aren’t always appealing unless you bet on the underdog. Minnesota is a complex state, thanks to tribal casinos and political headwinds, says Bussmann. Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are very similar to gambling but technically considered a form of derivatives and regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It is happening offshore, it’s happening on prediction markets, it’s happening through sweepstakes, and sports books.
Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA)
Online sports betting is legal in 30 states plus Washington DC, and an additional eight states have authorized retail sportsbooks only. On April 12, 2021, the state Senate approved Senate Bill HB 2772, which legalized retail Arizona sports betting and online sports betting. There are also no US federal gambling laws that indicate betting with licensed offshore sportsbooks is illegal. The table below shows how the US legal sports betting market has evolved over the years, based on total bets placed (handle) and total revenue and tax income generated by each state reporting such figures. Starting Sept. 1, 2021, the state started licensing sportsbooks to offer mobile sports betting only.
Place your wagers and always bet responsibly. Sign up with your legal name, date of birth, and SSN (for identity verification). Several states (Florida, Connecticut, Maine, Washington, New Mexico) operate under tribal gaming compacts that limit or exclude commercial operators. The top operators (DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, Fanatics) are live in most legal states.
Legal online sports betting is a growing trend throughout the United States. “To essentially offer 50 state nationwide sports betting through a certainly untested and unproven area of the law is something that is very concerning,” York adds. The record financial wins for the sports betting industry is a good sign, but prediction markets, which are legal in all 50 states, are muddying things up policy-wise, says York. Better known as PASPA, the law effectively made sports betting illegal except in Nevada and a few other states.
This guide discusses how virtual sports are bet on with odds produced from the best online wagering sites and displayed with third-party streaming services. Soccer fans will appreciate our guide to the best soccer betting sites online. Over time, sports betting grew increasingly popular and the demand for legal betting options grew. PASPA was overturned by the SCOTUS in 2018, and now each state can choose to legalize or prohibit sports betting at their pleasure. Below, you will find information about the most popular options that are available to wager on right now, where to do it legally online, and what kind of sportsbook bonus offers are available.
US Sports Betting Laws
Many bettors from New York travel to NJ to place bets while they wait for their home state to enter the online market. There is only one operator and online and in-person betting are both limited to licensed retail establishments throughout the state. That said, sports betting in the Treasure state is run by the lottery and is very limited. There were no active games, but the state was able to authorize sports betting after PASPA was struck down without the drawn-out process that has happened in other states.
Have legalized sports betting in some capacity, with varying availability in each one. Let’s dig right into the states that have legalized sports betting in some capacity. Ever since the fall of PASPA in 2018, sports bettors have had more and more legal sportsbooks to choose from.
Among them are sportsbook operators, sports leagues, casinos, and gaming facilities, including commercial casinos and Native American entities, as well as state and federal lawmakers and state lotteries. A good alternative to sports betting in California at this time is Kalshi, a legal federally regulated prediction market. New Hampshire has an exclusive contract with DraftKings as the sole sports betting operator, both online and at retail locations. Nevada, long known for its robust sports betting industry, continues to thrive with numerous sportsbooks and a mature regulatory framework. Montana’s sports betting is operated through the state lottery, with wagering available primarily at licensed retail locations. The following section provides a glance at the markets in states that have legalized sports betting and where operations are live.
- While many are still working toward full legalization, more states make the change each year.
- Nevada already had legal sports betting at the time and was therefore granted the sole exemption from PASPA for full-on sports betting.
- These companies are often headquartered in places like Costa Rica, Curacao, the Isle of Man, and other global regions that allow them to offer such amusements to an international clientele.
- Emotions can cause you to make bad bets or take risks that can cost you dearly.
- Some states allow online sports betting but prohibit online casinos or poker, while others allow only in-person betting.
- BetRivers remains the only active sportsbook in the state.
The Colorado Senate passed House Bill 1311, which would no longer allow sports betting operators to deduct promotional bets from their taxes. Mobile and land-based Colorado sports betting became legal during the spring of 2020. Despite several efforts to legalize California sports betting since 2018, it remains illegal.
However, after a couple of years, Elite decided to close its online doors. After launching in the US and Canada, Unibet made a big push in the States. After 2 years, they pulled out of the US market after a brief sojourn. A small operator from Sweden, Betsafe never had much of a chance in the highly competitive Colorado market. Like much of the former sports magazine of record’s latest ventures, this failed to live up to the legendary name.
If state-run lotteries are included, then 48 states allow some form of gambling. However, on May 14, 2018, the United States Supreme Court declared the entire law unconstitutional (Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association).citation needed No state governments had previously run gambling operations directly to raise money.
Check out our list below with rankings of every single US sportsbook. Get expert sports picks on every game, or if you want our very best bet premium picks by the experts, sign up for your free $60 account with a guarantee. However, Utah has recognized that DFS sites are legal and it is a game of skill. The only legal forms of gaming in Nebraska are the state lottery and charitable bingo and keno games.
Sports betting falls under a broad definition of wagers on outcomes of games and contests. Mississippi sports bettors can use the BetMGM Sportsbook app and the Pearl River Sports app to place their wagers. Local Louisiana’s sports bettors can bet on the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans for professional sports games. The West Virginia Lottery Commission turned to DraftKings and FanDuel to operate a commercial sportsbook a few months later. The Old Dominion has grown into a Top 10 market of legal states in the US market. Barstool Sportsbook is based in Wyomissing, PA. as a hometown sport betting site.
Alternatively, you bet the under if you feel that the teams won’t reach that combined total. To win a bet on Team B, the team must either win outright or lose by 3 points or less. The state’s constitution requires gambling activity to be managed by the Native American tribes and the bill still must pass the Senate. Despite the slowdown in new markets, 2025 was another one for the record books in terms of the amount of money Americans gambled on sporting events. “We were zero for zero last year,” says Brendan Bussmann, a managing partner of B Global, a local consulting firm focused on gaming.
These 4 states already had some type of sports betting available so they were grandfathered in. However, the opinion has been revised since to apply only to sports betting, as usual. We are pleased to say that the 2018 repeal of PASPA has minimized the federal government’s hold on domestic sports betting.
Despite being opposed to gambling, Gov. Bill Lee let theTennessee sports betting bill slide into law without his signature. Handle dropped for a second consecutive month to $83.5 million, but a whopping 14.9% hold resulted in a $6.2 million tax windfall, the highest figure for a single month in Oregon legal sports betting history. The law legalized sports betting ontribal lands, with the Eastern Band of Cherokee as the sole eligible tribeinitially. January 2025 saw New York sports betting sites rack up a record $2.49 billion in wagers, resulting in $248 million in gross revenue and a tax haul of $149.1 million.
Online sports betting with offshore sportsbooks are available in the state of Alabama for anyone aged 21 and over. When the first online, offshore sportsbooks opened up in the mid-1990s, everything in the legal gambling USA landscape changed drastically. While they have a few casinos around the state, using a legal online betting site is easily the most convenient option for NY bettors.
New Jersey is another major hub, with Atlantic City’s casinos and a strong online presence. Land-based casinos are still a cornerstone of U.S. gambling. Sports betting has grown faster than any other form of gambling since 2018. While they offer entertainment, they do not provide the same experience as a full online casino.
Because they are offshore betting sites, they do not need to be licensed in most states. The proposal would hand out a maximum of eight sports betting licenses while taxing operators at 12.5% And not only is sports wagering illegal in Alaska, but legal gambling of any kind is significantly limited. The state’s sports betting operators took in more than a million dollars in handle in January 2025, while registering a strong 10.6% hold for the month. However, online sports wagering remains illegal, with no clear path to change for the foreseeable future. The state introduced sports betting late in 2021 despite not altering the language of its Century Code to do so – a unique approach to legislation.
For instance, New York and Pennsylvania don’t allow player prop betting for college sports. This translated to a total revenue for sportsbooks of $7.5 billion per the American Gaming Association (AGA). Currently, the law applies to gambling establishments and organized gambling syndicates rather than individual bettors.
Our Golden Globes betting guide explains how to wager on one of Hollywood’s biggest awards shows, covering popular film and television betting markets, futures, and entertainment prop bets. Learn how Academy Awards odds work, where eligible U.S. players can find betting markets, and what to know before wagering on Hollywood’s biggest night. Our Academy Awards betting guide explains how to bet on the Oscars, including popular markets like Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and entertainment prop bets. Our entertainment betting guide explores wagering on award shows, television competitions, celebrity events, and other pop culture markets. Select a state below to learn about its current laws, available sportsbooks, minimum age requirements and any restrictions that https://www.pokernewsdaily.com/sportsbooks/ may apply.
As of January 2022, both retail and online sports betting services are live. Both retail and online sports betting are now live in the state, following voter approval in 2024 and subsequent rulemaking by the Missouri Gaming Commission. Bettors can place wagers online through licensed mobile sportsbooks and at approved retail casino locations.