After the US Supreme Court’s ruling to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in May 2018, a lot more states allow sports betting. In fact, there’s plenty more that began the process to legalize sports wagering in their region since then. At the time, only a handful of states had legal sports betting. Since then, more than two dozen states have started entertaining the concept of sports gambling in their jurisdiction.
Not all 50 states have passed legislation to allow retail stores and online bookies from offering sports betting. Nevertheless, US players now have the option to either visit sportsbooks at a local retailer or website online in Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and many other states.
States with Legal Online Sports Betting
For a long time, most states in America weren’t able to enjoy some of the luxuries of collecting taxes from the billion-dollar industry due to their longstanding gambling laws. More recently, lawmakers in states such as Georgia have also begun proceeding over possibly enacting legislation that allows sports betting in the region. Additionally, Maine had passed a sports betting bill in the legislature back in 2019 before it was vetoed by the governor.
Here’s a list of states that allow sports betting either from a land-based retailer/casino or gambling online:
| State | Retail or Casino | Online | Date when it was officially launched |
| Arkansas | No | Yes | 1 July 2019 |
| Colorado | Yes | Yes | 1 May 2020 |
| Delaware | No | Yes | 5 June 2018 |
| Illinois | Yes | Yes | 9 March 2020 |
| Indiana | Yes | Yes | 30 August 2019 |
| Iowa | Yes | Yes | 15 August 2019 |
| Michigan | Yes | Yes | 11 March 2020 |
| Mississippi | No | Yes | 1 August 2018 |
| Montana | On-Premises Only | Yes | 9 March 2020 |
| Nevada | Yes | Yes | 1931 |
| New Hampshire | Yes | Yes | 30 December 2019 |
| New Jersey | Yes | Yes | 15 May 2018 |
| New Mexico | No | Yes | 16 October 2018 |
| New York | No | Yes | 16 June 2019 |
| Oregon | Yes | Yes | 27 August 2019 |
| Pennsylvania | Yes | Yes | 15 November 2018 |
| Rhode Island | Yes | Yes | 26 November 2018 |
| Tennessee | Yes | Yes | 1 November 2020 |
| West Virginia | Yes | No | 1 September 2018 |
| Washington, DC | Yes | Yes | 28 May 2020 |
| Virginia | Yes | Yes | 21 January 2021 |
States Where Gambling Is Illegal
Even though there has been progress made by some states, the more conservative states regarding gambling have yet to amend their laws. Here’s a list of states that either does not allow sports betting or have bills pending approval from the regulators:
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- North Carolina
- South Dakota
- Washington
The following states have has begun the process of discussion at the state legislature level but the bill has not been passed:
- Arizona
- California
- Connecticut
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Missouri
- Ohio
- Georgia
- Massachusetts
- Oklahoma
- South Caroline
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Minnesota
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
