History of illegal gambling in sports

The United States 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 connected with sports gambling along with other standards have been changing and these changes are actually described as "Waves". The first of such waves was during the Colonial Period that lasted till the 1800s. The next wave took place following the US Civil war till the early 20th century. The third of these waves started during the Great Depression till date.

Sports gambling has long been illegal in America. Puritan attitudes while in the Colonial era were adopted towards sports and other gambling, possession of cards, gaming tables, dice etc. Down the line it was only allowed if this had not been a trade but only innocent recreation. Early settlers had the view that gambling was just a harmless hobby. Gambling was likened to the frontier spirit as both of them involved opportunism, risk taking and high expectations.

Illegal sports betting has become associated with mobsters and organized crime in the US. Illegal sports gambling was a huge business for gang mobsters in the 1920s and 1930s. Organized bookmaking systems were put in place by organized crime throughout the nation. Horse racing betting became popular in those times.

In 1931 Nevada legalized casino gambling and here too organized crime took control of all the casino betting business. Mobsters operated illegal nationwide wire services Trans America Wire and Continental Wire Service. Mobsters such as infamous Al Capone set up their own personal wire services to stop gamblers from taking any benefit of delays by making sure they posted winning bets before formal results were out.

The Federal Government of the usa cracked upon mobsters and organized crime during the 1950s and drove them outside the Nevada Casino gambling industry. But this did not dissuade the organized crime mobsters who took over illegal bookmaking. Law Enforcement authorities do acknowledge that independent bookies are functioning in the nation but it is evident that organized crime still controls all the big bucks in betting.

Animal fights also have a long history the United States despite the bad reputation it has. Most animal fights involve dog fights and cock fights which are today favored by street gangs and large amounts of weapons and money usually are present at the time of these fights.

History of illegal gambling in sports reveals that cockfighting was illegal and banned by nearly all states the United States during 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 participate in a game and have chances to win money is a "bet" and therefore also considered to be illegal gambling. It is important to keep in mind that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 only refers to the funding of internet gambling not the actual act of betting.