Sports betting is the most popular and most widely legalized form of online gambling, generating $4.3 billion in gross revenue in 2021, according to the American Gaming Association. 21 of the 22 states listed below have approved it.
Six states have legalized online casinos, and another six have legalized online poker, among other forms. Online gaming, or iGaming, brought in $3.7 billion last year.
Legislators in four states not included in this list (Kansas, Maine, Maryland and Ohio) have legalized online sports betting in recent months, but the laws are not yet in force. A fifth state, Florida, also passed legislation legalizing online sports betting, but faces additional legal hurdles.
According to The New York Times, online gambling was accepted in the United States from the late 1990s until 2006. At that time, Congress banned gambling companies from gambling online for “illegal” transactions.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on sports betting in 2018, some states rushed to legalize it. By the following year, over $11 billion had been legally wagered on sports games.
OddsSeeker researched 22 states where online gambling is legal using internet-wide news reports and government resources. Three forms of online gambling have been considered in this list: online casinos, online poker and online sports betting.
