From the beginning of sports some people were making bets. It can be a way to partake in the action and always have some thrill and excitement for a chance of winning. And after legalization of sports gambling in 2018 it has become quite popular, to the point where you can make bets online using apps, for example on the melbet apk. The full timeline of sports betting in the USA starts in the past century.
Twentieth century
The first big news about sport gambling hit in 1921 when 8 baseball players were permanently banned from playing due to the throwing of the 1919 World Series in collusion with sports gamblers. These events were later showcased in the film “Eight men out”. But baseball betting has been forbidden since.
More than ten years later Nevada legalized betting on sports. People then could gamble in the casinos without breaking the law.
However, sports betting was not only popular in Nevada – so people outside the state traveled to the casinos or gambled illegally. So the government tried to control illegal gambling. Thus a policy was created to curb the spread of gambling outside the state of Nevada with a tax on the money people could get legally. The percentage changed over the years:
- 10% – in the 1951;
- 2 % – in 1974 the tax was reduced to increase interest in legal gambling, instead of breaking the law;
- And in 1983 the government reduced tax in Nevada even more – down to the 0,25 percent which is the current tax in this state.
In order to reduce the betting activities of organized crime groups, a new law was enacted in September 1961 that prohibited the use of wire gambling for interstate sports gambling.
This initiative is still in use today and because of this, gambling is regulated by a certain state rather than the entire state at once.
In 1975 Las Vegas opened its first betting company in Union Plaza. And next year a full-fledged sports betting club opens in Stardust with 300 seats.
George Bush in 1992 approved the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which bans sports gambling in states that do not yet have laws permitting it. This makes Nevada the only state with legal sports gambling.
Twenty-first century
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, President George W. Bush approved the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits companies from knowingly receiving payments in connection with another person’s participation in a bet or wager that involves the use of the Internet and is illegal under any federal or state law. The law was made in response to the growing popularity of online poker and casino games, but it made an exception for fantasy sports, declaring it a skill-based game rather than a game of chance. This opened the door for the daily fantasy sports industry, whose popularity ended up increasing dramatically.
The state of New Jersey has filed its first federal lawsuit to overturn the PASPA law, claiming that it violates the 10th Amendment’s gambling protections. New Jersey’s effort to allow sports gambling, which is opposed by the four major U.S. sports leagues and the NCAA, would eventually reach the Supreme Court. A hearing on the case was set to take place in June 2017.
The Supreme Court overturned PASPA, determining that the law was “unconstitutional” and that states were free to set their own sports gambling laws when there was no federal regulated system.
In 2009, DraftKings became the first sportsbook online operator outside of Nevada to accept online betting in New Jersey. Later it will be joined by many other sports gambling operators in New Jersey and other states.
