The USA has a long history of illegal gambling in sports. Gambling scandals and political control have led to the prohibition and regulating sports gambling in the USA. Laws that related to sports gambling along with other standards have already been changing and these changes are actually described as “Waves”. The earliest of such waves was in the Colonial Period that lasted up until the 1800s. The second wave took place at the end of the US Civil war up until the early 20th century. The third of these waves started in the Great Depression till date.
Sports gambling has always been illegal in the US. Puritan attitudes while in the Colonial era were adopted towards sports and also other gambling, possessing cards, gaming tables, dice etc. Later on it was only allowed if it had not been a trade but only innocent recreation. Early settlers had the view that gambling was just a harmless past time. Gambling was likened to the frontier spirit as each of them involved opportunism, risk taking and high expectations.
Illegal sports betting has always been associated with mobsters and organized crime in the US. Illegal sports gambling became a huge business for gang mobsters in the 1920s and 1930s. Organized bookmaking systems were set up by organized crime all over the nation. Horse racing betting shot to popularity during this period.
In 1931 Nevada legalized casino gambling and here too organized crime took control of all of the casino betting business. Mobsters controlled illegal nationwide wire services Trans America Wire and Continental Wire Service. Mobsters like the infamous Al Capone put in place their own wire services to prevent gamblers from taking any benefit from delays by making sure they posted winning bets before formal results were out.
The Federal Government of the US cracked down on mobsters and organized crime during the 1950s and forced them outside the Nevada Casino gambling industry. But this would not deter the organized crime mobsters who took over illegal bookmaking. Law Enforcement authorities do acknowledge that independent bookies are operating in the nation yet it is evident that organized crime still controls all the big money in betting.
Animal fights furthermore have a long history in the US despite the bad reputation it has. Most animal fights involve dog fights and cock fights which are today popular with street gangs and large amounts of weapons and money usually are present at the time of these fights.
History of illegal gambling in sports uncovers that cockfighting was illegal and banned by most states in the US over the 1800s. It remains illegal currently in 48 states. The law in Minnesota makes any king of gambling bet Illegal. Thus any type of card game where you’ve got to pay to take part in a game and possess chances to win money is a “bet” and therefore also considered to be illegal gambling. It is essential to note that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 only deals with the funding of internet gambling not the actual act of betting.
