Online Sports Betting 976
If you're a sports fan, odds are very good that at one point or another you have engaged in certain form of sports betting. You could have been involved with a fantasy pool, you might have bet a beer with a buddy, you could even have placed a few of bets on the outcome of the Super Bowl or March Madness.
Although sports gambling is so common it's almost natural (actually, it has been a part of human culture for as long as sport itself), the fact is the fact that many forms of sports gambling we engage in are actually illegal. This really is particularly true if you live in Canada or perhaps the USA.
The big argument against gambling on most sports in these countries is a belief that betting on sports has the possibility to undermine the integrity of the game. Although in the past this tended to hold true with all sports, today it really is more a problem with minor sports and collegiate level athletics than the professional leagues.
The reasoning for this, of course, is fairly straight forward. Athletes who are receiving little if any money for playing their sport tend to be more vulnerable to bribes from individuals with a vested monetary interest within the game they are playing. When you are playing for nothing however the joy of it, the offer of a few thousand dollars to throw the game can be very tempting. Sports history is rife with examples of athletes both minor and pro that have succumbed to this temptation.
Legalities aside, it really is fairly obvious that sports betting is still a major part of our culture. In reality, it is quite rare to hear of circumstances through which anyone beyond those directly linked to the game even get in trouble for engaging in sports betting. Those involved would include coaches, officials, and players, rarely those betting on the game itself.
Actually, you might claim that sports gambling is just about an "open crime" these days. Odds and money lines are posted on all of the major sports channels, and bookmakers operate best soccer online (Discover More Here) with relative impunity. You will discover little if any efforts to stop mass betting on sports, which seems to indicate that at some time the laws prohibiting the activity will be done away with for good.
In the meantime, however, if you want to get a piece of betting action on a sport but want to stay well within the law, you can find a few of ways to do it. Let's take a quick look.
Pari-mutuel betting: There are actually certain sports in which the government actually endorses betting. This type of betting is described as pari-mutuel, or revenue shared, gambling. Strictly regulated, it applies only to dog and horse racing, and jai alai. All of these events are quite short, and thus harder to rig on the subject of results. And, the federal government gets a cut of all bets!
Go to Vegas! Nevada is the one state through which sports betting is legal and practiced as well. Again, who knows the real reasons, but you can find Nevada bookies ready to take bets from people nationwide.
Go on-line: In many of the rest of the world, sports betting is regulated and not seen as a problem. That means that thanks to the net, people from North America can place their bets with well-known bookies throughout the world. Bookmakers out of Vegas, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and any range of other countries have a presence online. Just ensure that they are going to take your money; some are leery of American bettors do to the government's ambiguity on the issue of sports gambling.
