United States Online Gambling

The United States has long been regarded as one of the major gambling addicted nations in the world, especially thanks to cities like Las Vegas and Atlantic City, but in truth, gambling in the United States has been strictly controlled up until recently. The Federal Government is not the official regulator of online and offline gambling laws, this has been left down to the individual states to allow online/offline gambling or prohibit it. In general, most US citizens do NOT have a great deal of access to such gambling venues (online or offline), but things are gradually starting to change.

In the US today, ‘Interstate’ gambling is now permitted. This new legislation means that US players can legally gamble in the real money mode, providing the state that they live in allows real cash gambling. States such as Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey all recently started issuing such licenses to a number of operators and they monitor their states by using Geo-location software. In other words, a player could not gamble in a state outside of their own even if they wanted to.

Therefore many US online gamblers who do not have any legally permitted gambling portals available in their state end up playing in offshore gaming sites, the vast majority of which tend to be licensed either in Costa Rica, in Panama, in Antigua and Barbuda (by the Directorate of Offshore Gaming), in Curacao (formerly Netherlands Antilles, by the Curacao Internet Gaming Association / CIGA), in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada (by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission), or in one of several other major global licensing jurisdictions.

Unfortunately, most American players do NOT have access to such a diverse range of games. For example, the majority of players cannot enter any Microgaming powered casinos, any Playtech powered casinos or any NetEnt powered casinos, but they do generally have access to most Realtime Gaming powered casinos and to most Rival Gaming powered casinos. They can also now access content from one or two other major online casino software providers. All of today’s US-friendly online casinos accept American dollars, but US players are also still fairly restricted when it comes to choosing an online payment method at an online casino.

For now, US players remain restricted and have very few online casino options available to them. Until their own state pushes for a more liberal attitude towards online gambling and moves to fully legalise online gambling, they will have to stick to playing at offshore gaming sites. The ones that are available to them now though are generally packed with a wide range of games to explore. They provide 24 hour toll-free telephone support for US players, they are controlled by some of the world’s most trusted operators and they are monitored by reputable third party auditors.

United States Gambling Resources:

Gambling in the United States - Wikipedia page that provides detailed information about the history as well as the current state of gambling in the United States.

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 - This bill passed in 2006 changed how online gambling in the United States worked.

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