Oh, Lone Star State. I have a bone to pick with you. This is a touchy subject, too, as I’m a proud citizen of the great state of Texas.

1. Why Is Internet Gambling Illegal In Some States
2. Why Is Gambling Illegal In Some States In America

I love your food; I love your diverse cultures and climates. I love that you can be country and hipster all at the same time.

Here are some reasons why gambling is illegal in the majority of countries and states. Gambling has been known to subject fraud. Legalized gambling is actually one of the fastest-growing industries and has already started corrupting on the governments. Even some of the states who were pretty rigid about crypto gambling are now introducing a new set of regulations in order to ease the process a little bit. However, it should be said that there are absolutely no strict laws that make online gambling illegal.

Office pools, for example, are technically illegal gambling, just like making a bet on the football game with your buddy. Having a poker game in your home is illegal gambling in some (but not all) states. Heck, betting your buddy $5 that he can't fit 50 marshmallows in his mouth at once is, by definition, illegal gambling. This is why online gambling is such an issue in the United States. Some states have come together to combine their player pools and it’s okay to take players from a wider gambling pool, but these agreements only apply to certain states and even certain games. It depends entirely on the kind of bets you take and the area you service.

But.

I want to know why you hate gambling.

This is a heart breaker for this gambling Texan girl.

Why are almost all forms of gambling illegal in my home state?

Why do you want me to take my hard-earned dollars out of state to spend on my favorite hobby?

I don’t want to give that taxable revenue to Louisiana, Oklahoma, or Nevada. I want to go to the Gulf Coast and let my family enjoy our warm waters.

Then I want to gamble.

Why are you keeping this from me?

Did I do something wrong?

Why are you so mad at gambling?

So many questions.

Let’s see if I can answer some of them.

The History of Gambling in The Lone Star State

Texas, much like its neighbors to the east and west, has changed hands many times of the course of its history. It was once even its own sovereign nation. Texans often refer to the Republic of Texas.

Texas was originally part of multiple native tribes, but we know how this goes. It changed hands between the Spanish (Tejas is the Spanish spelling), American, Mexico, and even the French.

Texas has the strictest real money gambling laws in the United States.

I would’ve guessed our Mormon friends in Utah would be a no go on gambling, but no.

It’s Texas.

This was huge swing from the Wild West attitude of the 1800s. Texas is the home of many outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James. Let’s not forget that Bonnie and Clyde were Texas residents, too.

This is not a neat or prim and proper state. We like to be left alone, not told what to do, and keep to ourselves.

The Prohibition Era ushered in a clamping down of the above vices to almost do a 180 from the torrid, wild past of the state.

So, when did the State of Texas make gambling illegal?

It’s a long drawn out answer. I wish it were easier. I wish it were something simple like 1920.

But no, it was a slow suffocation of the hobby.

The state would see local governments outlaw vices in their regions starting in the Reconstruction Era of the post war South. The nail in the coffin was the passage of the 18^th amendment to the United States Constitution. This made alcohol and gambling illegal throughout the country.

Once this amendment was overturned, many states started to reopen racetracks and saloon or bars. Texas dug its heels in the ground on the topic of gambling.

The legality of gambling has wavered throughout the state over the years, but one thing has stayed true.

Texas doesn’t condone most forms of gambling.

Texas has 2 casinos. We are number 2 in size and population in America. We are last in gambling.

And it doesn’t look like the legislature is going to budge anytime soon.

There are some obscure loopholes in our gambling laws, and the lottery is a big government business.

What Type of Gambling Are Legal in Texas?

There are a few types of gambling that are legal in Texas.

Most of these are weird – except for the lottery.

The Texas State Lottery

The State of Texas legalized a state lottery in July of 1991. That was a big win. I remember when my parents got together with their friends to go in a ton of tickets. My siblings and I started seeing scratch off tickets in birthday and holiday cards from our grandparents.

Playing the lottery in Texas is a big deal. An estimated 68% of Texan play some form of the lottery. With almost 40 million residents, that is a lot of money.

I am from Austin, the capitol of the state. Downtown they used to live film the drawings and we would watch through the window on our way to the bar when I was in college at University of Texas at Austin.

I don’t know anyone who hasn’t played the lottery. When my husband and I were young and broke we would buy scratch off in hopes to win enough to cover our bills

The Texas lottery is as common as a rodeo or going 2 stepping after a meal of Mexican food or BBQ.

The state makes billions off the proceeds. This money is allocated to schools and wildlife and land protections. Texans are big hunters which makes them conservationists by default.

Horse and Dog Racing

Under the pari-mutuel racing rules, Texans can participate in dog and horse betting. There are 3 class 1 racetracks in the entire state.

This type of gambling was legalized in Texas in 1978. Texas was about 30 years behind the rest of the country.

I didn’t grow up with adults going to the races because of the old hold over of prohibition and the Progressive Movement.

Native Tribe Casinos

Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the 3 recognized native tribes of Texas were granted the right to open gaming establishment.

The Kickapoo Tribe has the Lucky Eagle Casino. It’s found in Eagle Pass, in far West Texas on the Mexican border. It’s a long hot drive from almost anyone in the state except Laredo.

The Tigua Tribe owns and operates the Speaking Rock Entertainment Center.

You’ll find it in El Paso on their native lands. El Paso is the 5^th most populated city in the state, but it’s still a 9+ hour drive from the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.

Are you seeing a trend?

The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe offers gambling, too – at Naskila Gaming.

That’s located in Livingston, just north of Beaumont, Texas. It’s only a 3-hour drive, but there’s not a lot to see once you get there

The Naskila Gaming and Speaking Rock Entertainment have been wrapped up in red tape and legal disputes for years and may not be able to survive. This is against trend for other native casinos in other states.

You’ve heard of WinStar?

The largest casino in the world?

It is a native owned casino and has its own economy. It’s literally an hour drive from my house over the Oklahoma border.

What gives?

What Are 8-Liners and How Do They Work?

If you’re not from here, you’ve probably not seen these shady little machines. They’re the video poker looking machines in gas stations and dive bars.

They are gaming machines that offer noncash prizes of less than a $5.00 value. I have played these at a now closed bar (probably because they didn’t ID people).

Nowadays I see them mostly in underserved communities. It’s always a slimy gas station. The state legislature has been trying to outlaw them since the 80’s.

They argue that they qualify as in-person gambling and don’t follow that state guidelines of approved gambling.

That’s not the type of hobby gambling I’m look for in my home state, are you?

Casino Cruises

This one is tricky. I’m impressed to be honest. These one day “cruises” take people to a cruise to essentially nowhere.

They stop in international waters so that there is no jurisdiction to say, “Quit it!”. It is pretty genius but expensive.

The cost has caused many startups to fail or rebrand with more failure. They leave out of a Texas port with mostly Texas passengers.

The problem is most of the Texas ports are a short drive to Louisiana, our eastern neighbor. Louisiana is very pro gambling.

See the problem?

Why would I get on a day cruise and risk sea sickness when I can take my entire family to the Golden Nugget Lake Charles Casino and Resort for an all-inclusive resort vacation?

Conclusion

It’s not good. Texas has even made friendly wagering illegal in the state. If I host a poker night with real money, I could serve some prison time.

When will Texas catch up and join the 21^st, heck even the 20^th, century?

I don’t know.

Every year it’s on the state legislature’s docket.

Every session it fails.

Maybe other states have made it too easy for Texans to come visit.

I see it as a missed opportunity for tax revenue for the state. And tourist dollars. Texas is so big that driving from Dallas to the coast is considered being out of state in other parts of this country.

Austin has 100s of 1000s descend on it every March for the SXSW festival.

Why not also make some tax venue off them with gambling?

It just doesn’t make sense.

But this state likes to do things the hard way because that’s how it’s always been. For a long time.

I would love to hear your thoughts and questions. Please leave a comment below.

It goes without saying that gambling is a pretty complicated topic when we are talking about the US. All of us know that gambling is strongly prohibited in almost all states in the country. It needs to be said that the situation is not general for the whole state, due to the various opinions coming from different states.

We all know the stories about Atlantic City and Las Vegas, who are, alongside Indian reservations the best-known regions where all the citizens of the US can freely gamble in real casinos, without any restrictions. However, with the majority of the country strongly opposing it, we can see that many citizens have been able to find an alternative with online casinos. In the last couple of years and increased popularity of digital currencies, mostly Bitcoin, we can see that situation became more complex.

Anyone who knows the basics of cryptocurrencies knows that these are completely decentralized currencies, who have the idea of completely replacing fiat currencies. This is the reason why pretty much all the financial institutions are strongly opposing this concept. Not only that, we can see that many people are still skeptical about this concept, even in this day and age.

We can see that more businesses and organizations adopt digital currencies by the day. Plus, we can see that there is even a country that has decided to completely legalize all the digital currencies and made them tax-free. We are talking about Belarus, of course. So, you surely have the question what is the connection between these two concepts?

Well, one of the ways of implementation of digital currencies was through online casinos. We can see that a majority of them allow their player to gamble with cryptos. So, check this list if you are interested in checking some of the best bitcoin casinos you can play at and who are registered in the US. Anyway, we would like to discuss this topic in greater detail due to its popularity and importance.

What’s the Regulation in the US?

We can see that the question of BTC regulation in the country is not completely finished on a federal level. So, it should be said that BTC or any other digital currencies are not illegal at a federal level. But, at the same time, we cannot say that this concept is completely legal. But the government has decided to implement a couple of different concepts in order to have proper regulation in the future.

With all this information in front of us, we can see that the government has a right to impose taxes on any kind of profit, which comes as a result of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin. This means that investors and traders need to give some percentage of their profit to the federal government. We can see that it isn’t any serious difference between this concept and any other type of taxes that can be seen every day. It’s important to point out that different states have different opinions about the concept.

States Who are Friendly Towards Cryptos

We’ve mentioned that the federal government has a particular regulation towards Bitcoin and other cryptos. Even with this fact, we can see that some states are more pro-crypto than others. We are going to take a look at some of these states.

• Kansas
• Montana
• Tennessee
• Texas

States Who are Not Friendly Towards Cryptos

With having in mind that some of the states have a pro-crypto behavior, it makes sense to presume that there are other states who are not so welcoming to this concept. Now, we will name all of them.

• California
• Connecticut
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• Wisconsin

Bitcoin Gambling Regulation

Why Is Internet Gambling Illegal In Some States

Since we are talking about a pretty hot topic, we can see that regulations in different states towards crypto gambling are constantly changing. Some states are in the process of changing their regulation as we speak. So, anyone shouldn’t be surprised by the number of changes we are going to witness in the future. Even some of the states who were pretty rigid about crypto gambling are now introducing a new set of regulations in order to ease the process a little bit.

However, it should be said that there are absolutely no strict laws that make online gambling illegal. Add to that the fact that digital currencies are no prohibited, and you have a situation where you don’t have anything that prohibits the use of these for any kind of purpose. But, it’s of the utmost importance for players to understand that the anonymity provided together with the concept will not protect them in case there are some illegal activities going on.

The Benefits of Bitcoin Gambling

Surely, you will ask why is it important to understand why the question of crypto gambling is so important? Well, crypto gambling makes it much easier for people to gamble than it was ever before. This approach alone covers a lot of steps that any player needs to go through in order to play at one of these websites. The only thing you, as a player, are required to do is to send the proper amount of coins from the wallet, which is connected to the website in question.

Plus, with digital currencies being known as the concept with pretty fast transactions, you can expect these transactions to be completely under an hour. Furthermore, every player has an opportunity to remain completely anonymous during this process. Naturally, it needs to be said that it is essential for some regulation to be set in order for the whole process to be completed within the law of the federal government.

The Wrap-up

Why Is Gambling Illegal In Some States In America

In the end, we would like to say that gambling with Bitcoin, or any other crypto for that matter, is not illegal in the US. However, we’ve provided you with highly detailed information about all the particularities you need to be aware of before you can freely start playing at some of these websites. If you are from some of the states who are not so friendly towards cryptos, you need to be pretty careful about your steps, that’s for certain.