| From the old-school neighborhood bookie to Vegas | | | | from underneath the long arm of the United States' |
| sportsbooks to the ever-increasingly common online | | | | law. They found it in the late '90s on the internet. |
| sportsbooks, football betting has come a long way in a | | | | Online football betting was born in the late 1990's when |
| relatively short time. In years past, if a gambler wanted | | | | a number of neighborhood bookmakers realized there |
| to bet on football he or she would place a wager with | | | | was a way to reach larger audiences as well as to |
| the neighborhood bookie. In the nineteen-sixties, in an | | | | escape the legal issues that had become a hindrance |
| effort to control what had become an enormous | | | | to their business. The increasing ubiquity of the internet |
| underground industry, the Federal Government | | | | allowed football betting to become more secure, more |
| legalized sports betting within the state of Nevada, and | | | | accessible, and lastly but not leastly, more fun. |
| made it illegal everywhere else in the U.S. With the rise | | | | Offshore sportsbooks really started to catch on in the |
| of the world wide web, online football betting has | | | | early 2000's and have since become the most popular |
| become an internet commonplace and online | | | | method for football betting. Online gaming companies |
| sportsbooks take in billions of bets each year. This | | | | took over $12 Billion in bets in 2005, and those numbers |
| didn't all happen overnight. | | | | are predicted to grow by at least 20% this year. Along |
| Football betting has been around longer than many of | | | | with the success has come attention both friendly and |
| the more traditional sports bettors care to remember. | | | | otherwise. As the online sportsbooks become more |
| Originally, football betting took place in a back alley or a | | | | popular every year with the football betting crowd, the |
| local pub and the local bookie was the person who | | | | United States government looks for ways to reach |
| cashed in on the wagers placed on football. The only | | | | beyond their own borders to block the flow of U.S |
| choice many people had for gambling on games was | | | | funds to offshore companies and to make online |
| through the local bookie. Back then, bookies had an | | | | football betting illegal for football bettors here in the |
| image of being the tough guy. They flashed the money | | | | States. Many Americans feel that this is as doomed to |
| they made, and when credit came due and a bettor | | | | fail as other attempts at the prohibition of "vices", as |
| couldn't pay, bookies often resorted to violence. It was | | | | well as unnecessary, as the industry becomes |
| this image and violence that led to their eventual | | | | increasingly self-regulated. |
| downfall. | | | | The offshore sportsbook industry has come a long |
| The Federal Government isn't fond of underground, | | | | way in its short life. In the beginning the instances of |
| untaxed, and lawless economies. And that's exactly | | | | sportsbooks not paying winning customers was almost |
| what football betting was. In addition, whether true or | | | | too many to count. The gold rush atmosphere brought |
| not, the feds were convinced that many of these | | | | entrepreneurs with little or no business or gaming |
| neighborhood bookies had mob ties. In order to stop | | | | experience running to set up an offshore shop and |
| control and regulate football betting and all other betting | | | | cash in on the craze. The result of these fly-by-nights |
| on sports, the Federal Government outlawed betting in | | | | was a black eye for the industry as a whole. Since |
| all states but Nevada. The only legal way to bet on | | | | then, sportsbook review sites like and offshore |
| football at that point was to do it in Vegas. | | | | watchdog organizations like SportsBettingScams.org |
| However, many industries have been outlawed in the | | | | have stepped in to help police the otherwise |
| history of the United States, some recently, some not | | | | unregulated industry. The effect of these sites has |
| so recently, and none of them successfully. So even | | | | been to make football betting scams more and more |
| after Las Vegas sportsbooks were legalized football | | | | rare every day. The positive result of all the attention |
| bettors still tended to use the neighborhood bookie, and | | | | that online football betting has attracted is that it's much |
| the business thrived. This was true for many reasons, | | | | more difficult to scam bettors when everyone's |
| but especially financial ones: it's neither easy nor | | | | watching. |
| profitable to hop a plane to Las Vegas to place a $100 | | | | Football betting was forever changed by online |
| wager. Despite this success, the neighborhood bookies | | | | sportsbooks and the days of the old-school |
| weren't by any means free from the attempts of the | | | | neighborhood bookie are now forever gone. After the |
| police to shut them down. Legal issues were an | | | | lawless frontier days, offshore sportsbooks have |
| unwelcome nuisance for the business, and police raids | | | | become the easy and accessible, secure and legal |
| were costly and frightened off business. What | | | | option for millions of football bettors. Expect this trend |
| bookmakers really needed was a way to get out | | | | to continue. |