United States of America
There is no federal gambling regulator in the United States and no federal gambling licence. Authority sits with the states, and the practical consequence is that almost every question about American gambling has fifty different answers. Tax rates run from 6.75% in Nevada to 51% in New York; a state may authorise sports betting and still prohibit online casino, which most of them do. That structure was settled on 14 May 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in Murphy v. NCAA. The ruling did not legalise sports betting: it held that Congress could not order states not to authorise it, which left each state to decide. Three federal statutes still set the outer bounds. The Wire Act of 1961 reaches interstate sports wagering, its scope finally settled by the First Circuit in 2021 after a decade of reversed Department of Justice opinions. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 governs payment processing and is not a barrier to state-licensed operators. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 governs tribal gaming, and the National Indian Gaming Commission that administers it is the only federal gaming regulator there is.
The National Indian Gaming Commission regulates tribal gaming only. It does not license commercial or online operators, and there is no federal body that does. Every licensing, tax and legality question is a state question.
Interstate Wire Act of 1961
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (Supreme Court of the United States, 2018)
14 May 2018
PASPA's prohibition on state authorisation of sports betting violated the anticommandeering doctrine of the Tenth Amendment and was struck down in full, leaving each state free to decide for itself.
Nothing suggests federal licensing. The live federal questions are narrower: the tax treatment of gambling losses, prediction markets regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than by gaming regulators, and the reach of the Wire Act over interstate liquidity sharing.
Chief Justice John Roberts denied Red Rock Casino's emergency application on Friday without comment, leaving in place a DC Circuit judgment that the resort must recognise and bargain in good faith with the Culinary Union. The dispute runs back to a 2022 finding that a fair election could not be held at a Station Casinos property.
The Georgia manufacturer has bought the gaming operations arm of Win Systems, including its Gold Club electronic-roulette business, taking on an installed base across Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Panama. Terms were not disclosed, and the deal turns a US regional supplier into a Latin American one overnight.
Told by regulators in Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania that it could not offer both, Underdog has chosen its CFTC-registered event contracts over the draft games that built the company. Drafts close in those states on Wednesday evening, after the NFL season kicks off.
The City of Springfield has taken MGM Resorts to Hampden Superior Court over alleged breaches of the 2013 host community agreement, from employment levels to a downtown building left behind scaffolding for seven years. MGM calls the suit frivolous and says the real story is a proposed sale to a "well-qualified casino operator" that the mayor's office has stalled since early 2024.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board used its first meeting after the Ninth Circuit ruling to say sports event contracts are sports bets, full stop. Kalshi's co-founder says the company will keep arguing for a single federal regulator, and New Jersey has now asked the Supreme Court to settle it.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission will use its existing exclusion powers to bar bettors found to have harassed or threatened athletes from every licensed sportsbook and casino in the state. Leagues, players' unions, colleges, venues and athletes themselves can report incidents to a new portal, and the commission's enforcement bureau can subpoena operators to identify anonymous accounts.
HB 5811 would strike the exchange wager tax Illinois enacted in its budget less than three months ago, along with the definition that brought prediction markets inside the Sports Wagering Act. The tax is already being challenged in court by Kalshi and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the bill would not end that fight.
The American Gaming Association expects Americans to bet $29.5 billion legally on the 2026 NFL season, up barely at all on last year's $29.4 billion. Its chief executive says the reason is "backdoor sports betting" on prediction markets, and the numbers it cites for Novig, Rothera and Underdog explain why.
Fanatics Sports & Casino merges three products into a single account and one FanCash balance. The prediction markets side reaches states where the sportsbook cannot go.
United States Government
Supreme Court of the United States
American Bar Association, Business Law Today