Who Cares About Illegal Gambling. Its Superbowl

Filed in archive Betting on February 3, 2006

Its the biggest sports weekend in the US - and arguably the biggest betting weekend ever as Seattle take on Pittsburgh in this Sunday's superbowl.

And if its superbowl weekend, that means its time for a bet - and nowadays, that often means an online bet.

Regardless of the fact that online betting is illegal in the US, that doesn't stop anywhere between $500 million and $1 billion being bet on the game - due to the 1800 or so online betting sites available - most of which are American run and based in the Caribbean. Its predicted that 60 million people will place a bet on the game - with a minimum of a $1 stake and nearly 1000 betting propositions available.

So can the US do anything about it? Quite simply, no. The wire act doesn't allow someone to take a bet over a telephone, not place one. And whilst they're doing their best to pressure US credit card companies not to accept betting or gambling, it doesn't stop a number of other easy methods available to place the bet.

With legal Nevada sportsbooks chomping at the bit to get some of the online action, and the prospect of millions of dollars in tax revenue hitting the government coffers, you have to wonder why there isn't a serious discussion of making online sports betting legal already in the US

Article: Internet Gambling Is Illegal. Wanna Bet?- Online gambling fuels record betting on Super Bowl