Can US Citizens Bet Horse Racing Online Legally?

Question

Sports gambling is not legal in may American states. Horse race betting is pretty famous in America, I was wondering is online horse racing legal in America. Please specify.

Answer 1

f you're not new to the Internet you know the U.S. Government has been coming down hard on illegal  online betting. This means placing wagers on websites, which are not based in the United States. In fact many credit card companies will and do block transactions to offshore illegal gambling sites.

But what if you want to bet horse racing? After all horse betting is legal in most every State in the USA, isn't it? Yes it is. And there are ways to place your horse racing bets online safely and securely without fear of being accused of "illegal" wagering.

There is a problem with online horse racing betting, however. Some States, in order to protect their tax revenues derived from their State-run satellite betting and Off Track Betting parlors, have blocked legal horse betting sites from access with their State.

I know it sounds unfair, and pretty much, it is. But such is life when you're dealing with tax revenues. On the bright side, there are sites you can place your wagers on, and here are three of my favorites - starting with the best:

Youbet.com - based in Woodland Hills, California, they are a publicly traded company that is certified and approved to accept online horse wagers. To see if their services are available in your State call: 1-888-YOUBET-8

TVG.com - is another great choice. In fact they have their own Cable TV station and run a class act. To see if their services are available in your State call: 1-888-PLAY-TVG

Racingchannel.com - I love this site just for their huge archives of horse racing, greyhound racing and harness racing results. You can get lost for hours in the results area. Located in Bensalem, Pennsylvania you can all them at: 1-866-722-3386

I did come across a bit of trouble when using these sites and it is this - even though these are legal USA-based horse-betting sites, my debit card transactions were still blocked by both VISA and MasterCard and flagged as offshore gambling. Even though I called and explained to them, they still refused to make payment - and I ended up sending a money order.

So whether you're a weekend player, a professional or have the hottest horse racing system around, you CAN legally bet on horse racing on the Internet.