Legal Issues in Sports Gambling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Legal Issues in Sports Gambling - Essay Example With the advent of increased online gambling activities, there had been confusion because a majority of laws applied to gambling in sports and other forms of bet taking were in use long before the internet came into widespread use and were at the discretion of states. Further, laws relating to cyberspace have been hard to craft while older laws are open to broad interpretations in this context. Bills’ seeking to create laws to regulate online gambling has mostly ended in failure. However, Illinois passed legislation which strictly bars advertising of online casinos in the state (Illinois Gambling Laws, 2012). In reference to the Gambling and Related Offences 2012 (US), section 28(1) one is said to commit gambling offence when, he or she makes a wager upon the result of a game. Brief history of sports gambling. Ever since, sporting activities started, people have had the urge to bet on the outcome. Nowhere else is gambling as widespread as in the United States. Thompson (2001), in his research identified the founding fathers of the United States as natural risk takers; therefore the attraction to take part in all forms of gambling was rather inherent. Humphrey (2012), in his research, stated that, in the initial days of United States, the colonists used to gamble on anything ranging from bare-knuckle brawls to cockfights and makeshift horse races.... Thompson (2001) confirmed many colorful characters and factors have played a role in the  growth  of sports gambling, but what is  obvious  is that sports gambling are here to stay despite efforts by various governments’ attempts to curtail its  growth. Sometime back, a sport betting was just a  negligible  part  in  human, social life, but nowadays it runs from the professional bettor, the middle class  family  to the common man on the street (Ziming  and Shaffer, 2009). The effect of this has been that professional bookmakers and gamblers have resulted to bribery of participants and other  uncouth  activities. Horse racing was the first sport which recorded  widespread  bet  activity  due to its increased popularity especially in the United Sates. During the initial years, this was a  game  for the upper class, but after the  end  of civil war, horse tracks appeared and dotted eastern landscapes attracting bettors from every econom ic sector in United States (Thompson, 2001). The peak of horse racing was in 1920s and  decline  began in 1930s. Currently, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act 2006 (US) has  section  5363 and 5366 which has criminalized taking of money from bettors by online gaming website operators but excludes online betting on horse racing activities from its list of illegal gambling activities. However, these bets must be  legal  at the two ends of online connection (Humphrey, 2012). Formation of professional leagues, they diverted attention of gamblers and made a majority of them  abandon  horse race betting for other areas such as professional baseball. Use of  pool  cards’ became  common  especially in the urban areas of the East. These  pool  cards were similar to the present