The United States has a long history of illegal gambling in sports. Gambling scandals and political control have ended in the prohibition and regulation of sports gambling in the US. Laws that connected with sports gambling and other standards have already been changing and the changes are actually described as “Waves”. The earliest of such waves was in the Colonial Period that lasted up until the 1800s. The second wave took place at the end of the US Civil war up until the early 20th century. The third of these waves started in the Great Depression till date.
Sports gambling has always been illegal in the US. Puritan attitudes while in the Colonial era were adopted towards sports and also other gambling, possessing cards, gaming tables, dice etc. Later on 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 past time. Gambling was likened to the frontier spirit as each of them involved opportunism, risk taking and high expectations.
Illegal sports gambling has become associated with 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 set up by organized crime throughout the nation. Horse racing betting became popular in those times.
In 1931 Nevada legalized casino gambling and here too organized crime took control of 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 personal wire services to prevent gamblers from taking any benefit of delays by making sure they posted winning wagers before official results were out.
The Federal Government of the usa cracked upon mobsters and organized crime over the 1950s and drove them out of the Nevada Casino gambling industry. But this did not deter the organized crime mobsters who took over illegal bookmaking. Law Enforcement authorities do acknowledge that independent bookies are functioning within the nation but it is obvious that organized crime still controls all the big bucks in betting.
Animal fights also 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 which are today popular with street gangs and large numbers of weapons and money usually are present at the time of these fights.
History of illegal gambling in sports uncovers that cockfighting was illegal and banned by most states in the US over the 1800s. It remains illegal currently in 48 states. The law in Minnesota makes any king of gambling bet Illegal. Thus any sort of card game where one has to pay to take part in a game and have chances to win cash is a “bet” and thus 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.
