Is It Safe To Bet Sports Online?

With the massive popularity of sports in the United States, it’s no surprise that betting on the outcomes of sports matches has reached greater heights than ever in our culture. Still, since the laws of the nation dictate that in order to bet on sports, US residents must trust their money and investments to offshore enterprises, there has been a growing concern among prospective bettors in the country that legal online sportsbooks that accept USA players may not be as safe as they like.

We wrote this page to help dispel all doubt. We ourselves are avid bettors, and we want to help set everyone’s mind at ease on the subject. This page will detail the safety of all major sports betting sites in the United States from the perspective of legality, financial security, and identity protection. If we do our job, you’ll feel just as good about betting with any of our favorite US sports betting sites as we do.

Safety can mean many things, but let’s tack them all off the list one by one. First, we’ll tackle legality since it’s hard to feel safe if you feel like participating in your favorite hobby can land you in jail at any moment. The thing to understand about the sports betting laws in the United States is that they do not target the players, only the facilitators. This means that no matter what happens, you cannot get in legal trouble for merely using an online sportsbook. Granted, knowing that we’re betting with a legal business will make everyone feel better, and that’s why we recommend offshore sports betting sites that operate safely outside the jurisdiction of the federal laws that govern bookmaking.

Aside from merely being legal to bet on sports, players want to know that their sportsbook offers them more security than merely being legal. After all, there has to be more to safety than not throwing your clients in jail. The best marker we can give you for a site’s legitimacy is their longevity. All the legitimate online sportsbooks that accept USA players that we recommend on this page have been operating for more than a decade, and take it from us, in an industry this competitive, that’s quite the accomplishment. Sites that do not pay out their players reliably, or who offer anything less than top-notch security for the money that players invest in them simply do not last, and they surely don’t last more than ten years.

Lastly, we touched a bit on security already, but it bears further analysis. We know that betting online with a foreign business can feel a little off, but when compared to the alternatives, it comes out far ahead. We’re sure that you can make your way to the local bar and find someone with the resources to place a bet for you, and they may even pay you out when you win, but you have no real guarantee. By betting with legal establishments that operate within the laws of their native country and the parameters established by the commissions that license them, you’re betting with an establishment that MUST pay you out in a timely manner in order to stay afloat.

Read More: Are Online Sportsbooks Legal For USA Players?

While we can assure you until we’re blue in the face that sportsbooks are legal, sometimes it takes an in depth look at the sports betting laws in the US that govern sports betting in the US in order to make a player feel truly safe in their betting environment. Remember that absolutely none of these laws can imprison or fine a player, and that only bookmakers need concern themselves with what these bills say.

The Federal Wire Act passed back in 1961 when organized crime was a rampant issue and they had a stranglehold on the bookmaking business. This law prohibits bookmakers from using wired communications (which the Supreme Court later decided includes the internet) to transmit information related to sports betting. If that bill made life for bookmakers and business owners who hoped to promote sports betting difficult, it was nearly impossible after the PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) passed in 1992. This bill outright forbids bookmakers to operate anywhere in the United States except for Montana, Delaware, Oregon or Nevada. In conjunction with the Wire Act, this assures that no sportsbook operating in the United States can accept residents from all 50 states. Finally, the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) of 2006 passed, but provided little more than an inconvenience to bookmakers, who could no longer process payouts via an electronic transfer of funds.

So how do the online sportsbooks we recommend work around these laws? It’s very simple. Remember that all the sites we recommend operate offshore. This puts them well outside the jurisdiction of any federal laws, and means that can operate legally and accept US players in states that have legal sports betting just as long as they remain in compliance with the laws of their native country.

We hope that you’re starting to feel better about the safety of the sportsbooks that we endorse. Knowing what to look for in a legitimate online sportsbook for US residents can make a world of difference, so here are some things we focus on that let us know we’re using a safe betting site.

The legal USA Betting sites we like to use all offer a variety of secure deposit and payout methods. Once we request a payout, we don’t like to be kept waiting, either. We expect a good turnaround on all of our payout requests, and we hope to receive our money within 2-3 business days, also, of course, allowing time for the mail. We know that most legit sites will have the backing of major media companies, and that their reputations on our favorite sports betting forums will be largely positive. After all these considerations are met, we like to know that our sportsbook will take care of us, both by offering a fun product with a lot of opportunities to place bets and bonuses that incentivize us to come back for more.

Now that you know what we look for, you can get an idea of what all the sites that we recommend offer. When we look at the ones we especially like, you should always assume that they are safe as can be, and take any other features as a perk. Get happy! Safe online sportsbooks that accept USA residents are here to stay.