Legal State Drive Offshore Traffic to Gambling Sites
Not All Bettors Know They're Betting Illegally

The common misperception among most people now is that sports betting in the United States is legal. It isn’t. What the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 did was nullify the federal law that said sports betting was illegal.
The decision left it to the individual states whether to legalize it or not. Nearly three-quarters of the states have legalized sports gambling as a form of tax revenue. But the legalization has also seen legal states drive offshore traffic and send sports bettors to offshore sportsbooks.
The offshore sportsbooks generally have two types of customers. There are those who live in a state where sports betting is legal, but don’t realize the offshore sportsbook is deemed illegal in the United States. Search engines frequently list offshore sportsbooks when somebody searches for a sportsbook to use.
There is no distinction between US sportsbooks and offshore sportsbooks. Affiliate sportsbooks sites can also make it sound as though betting through an offshore sportsbook is legal in order to get new customers to sign-up.
The most common offshore sportsbook customer knows the offshore sportsbook is considered illegal, but still bets through it anyway. Many new sign-ups for the offshore sportsbooks come from residents in states where sports betting is not yet legal.
These people may also try to bet online through a legal establishment in a nearby state. But Geolocation software has made it more difficult to bet from out of state.
Bettor Safe Campaign
The Bettor Safe campaign is designed help bettors access legal sites. The campaign understands that legal states drive offshore traffic and say for prospective bettors to look for the name or logo of the state’s gaming regulatory body. It also tells bettors if the registration process isn’t comprehensive, you could well be signing up with an illegal site.
The campaign states, “The Bettor Safe campaign is designed to raise awareness so that consumers can more easily differentiate legal from illegal betting sites and make the safe and secure choice if they choose to bet online. The campaign was launched in association with GeoComply, which is committed to strengthening consumer protections.”
Bettor Safe also warns of potential dangers of betting through illegal sportsbooks.
“Consumers betting on illegal sites have no legal protection safeguarding their wager, their identity and their financial information,” the campaign says. “By entering personal details and payment information on an illegal site, you are handing this information to an unregulated entity that is not subject to government oversight or legal recourse.”
Few Legal Online Casinos
Making matters worse is the online casino aspect. There are only six states that currently allow online casino gambling. That means most states with legal online sports betting don’t allow casino gambling. Not everybody is aware of that fact.
But others, who bet sports legally, may look to an offshore betting site for casino betting. But that does have potential problems, according to Bettor Safe, which states, “there is no way of knowing whether the game you are playing has fair odds, or whether the odds have been stacked against you.”
The gambling news has been good for U.S. sports bettors. But newcomers need to be completely aware of what they’re getting into. As long as we continue to see legal states drive offshore traffic it won’t be easy. There’s too much money at stake and there are those always looking to make a quick dollar.
For gambling news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.