History of illegal gambling in sports
The United States has a long history of illegal gambling in sports. Gambling scandals and political control have ended in the prohibition and regulating sports gambling in the US. Laws that related to sports gambling along with other standards have been changing and these changes have been named “Waves”. The first of such waves was in the Colonial Period that lasted up until the 1800s. The second wave took place following the US Civil war up until the early Twentieth century. The 3rd of such waves started during the Great Depression till date.
Sports gambling has long been illegal in the US. Puritan attitudes during 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 it was not a trade but only innocent recreation. Early settlers had the view that gambling was only a harmless hobby. Gambling was likened to the frontier spirit as both of them involved opportunism, risk taking and high expectations.
Illegal sports gambling has always been linked to mobsters and organized crime in the US. Illegal sports gambling became a huge business for gang mobsters in the 1920s and 1930s. Organized bookmaking systems were put in place by organized crime all over the nation. Horse racing betting shot to popularity during this period.
In 1931 Nevada legalized casino gambling and here too organized crime took control over all the casino betting business. Mobsters operated illegal nationwide wire services Trans America Wire and Continental Wire Service. Mobsters such as infamous Al Capone put in place their own wire services to stop gamblers from getting any benefit of delays by making sure they posted winning bets before formal results were out.
The Federal Government of the usa cracked down on mobsters and organized crime during the 1950s and drove them out of the Nevada Casino gambling industry. But this would not dissuade the organized crime mobsters who took over illegal bookmaking. Law Enforcement authorities do acknowledge that independent bookies are functioning within the nation yet it is evident that organized crime still controls all of the big money in betting.
Animal fights furthermore have a long history the United States in spite of the not so good reputation it’s got. Most animal fights involve dog fights and cock fights that have become favored by street gangs and large numbers of weapons and cash usually are present in the course of these fights.
History of illegal gambling in sports uncovers that cockfighting was illegal and banned by most states in the US during the 1800s. It remains illegal currently in 48 states. Legal issues in Minnesota makes any king of gambling bet Illegal. Thus any sort of card game where one has to spend to take part in a game and possess possibilities to win money is a “bet” and therefore also thought 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.