Attorney Owens' Findings

[ghostly]

Does anybody know which states Attorney Owens has researched and found there to be no laws against a person placing a wager on sports. I believe Kentucky was the only one I've seen, but I don't know if I missed some of his other articles.

[mowens]

Is it legal to gamble online?

Thanks for the email!

Strictly speaking, only two jurisdictions in the USA have actually approved enabling legislation to allow full-bore onling gaming: Nevada and Virgin Islands- though the actual mechanism has not been worked out yet for either place.

There are about thirty other states where you can use the Internet to access horse bet services like YouBet! or TVG.

The particular thing I was talking about is whether the police can
grab somebody for the mere act of gambling, online or otherwise.

There are two schools of thought here: many states , like New York and Kentucky, don't bother to chase the individual gambler, ' cause it's the operator they want. In that case we can report that it is not illegal to place a bet online. Not saying they LIKE it, no indeed, but they won't bust you for it. Not worth the aggravation, in their view.

Other states, such as Massachusetts and Mississippi, in fact outlaw the act of placing a bet. Mass specifically talks about placing a bet; Ole Miss simply states that any bet not made at a state-licensed game is illegal ( the default route). But either way it's a misdemeanor, whcih generally means that it's a fine and/or 30 days, 90 days if they're strict, six months if they're really rabid about it. Try not to get busted in an election year.

It's worth remembering, however, that in each and every case there will be an exception made for games that are state-licensed. Gambling is evil, and a menace to society.... until the Governor gets a cut.

Right now I am in the last few weeks of a 50 state survey, and I hope to have the entire archive available soon.

And please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.


Cheers,

Martin Owens

[oddswiz]

Also important to remember you can count on one hand BETTORS that have been prosecuted for betting.

They couldn't even make charges stick against Billy Walters and the computer group and there was no doubt whatsoever that they bet with illegal bookmakers across the country.

99.9% of the players out there simply aren't worth going after. And the .1% they do go after are generally into other things which is what brings attention to them in the first place.