Legal Gambling States

It is not hard to find legal gambling states if you want to play online. The question of legality as it refers to gambling in land-based casinos is pretty straight forward. The laws are clear and one can easily determine if it is allowed in their state. Each state has the power to create the laws which must be abided by and which will govern gambling. They have been given this right by the Federal government. Therefore, what may be legal in one state may be illegal in another. Don’t make assumptions either way, simply find out what the laws are where you live. To make the process easier, we have listed in this article, the states where gambling is legal. It is important to note that Indian tribes are allowed to open up casinos even in states where gambling is illegal as they are recognized as “sovereign nations” in this manner. The gambling laws on a state’s books refer to commercialized gambling and casinos.

The state of Nevada was the first to make gambling legal in the United States. Gambling has since become the engine that powers that state’s economy. People around the world are familiar with Las Vegas as a gambling Mecca and would recognize Reno as a storied part of the state’s gambling history. Some years later, gambling would become legal in Atlantic City, New Jersey and then Tunica, Mississippi in 1990. Each of these cities, have since developed very strong gambling industries.

Currently, seventeen states and one United States territory (Puerto Rico), allows commercial USA gambling and either land based or river boat casinos. Commercial casinos are defined as those that are owned by private companies and don't reside on Indian owned land. The 17 states that have made commercial gambling legal are West Virginia, California, Washington, Colorado, South Dakota, Florida, Puerto Rico (US territory), Illinois, Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, Iowa, New Jersey, Louisiana, Nevada, Michigan, Mississippi and Missouri. In these 17 states and one US territory, there are more than 400 casinos that are commercially owned and ran.

In other states casinos may not legal. However, gambling is legal in some form. In many states this form is known as the lottery. Most states do support and allow lottery ticket sales. However, there are some do not. The ones that do not are Wyoming, Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Nevada (though this may change soon), Arkansas, Mississippi and Hawaii.

Legalized gambling is in some form available in most states in America. In some of these legal gambling states, commercialized casinos are legal, while others states only allow for legalized lotteries run by the state. In states that do not allow commercial casinos, there may be allowances for Native Americans. Tribes are recognized as “sovereign nations.” Therefore, even if commercialized casinos and gambling is not legal, tribes can still open up casinos because they do not have to follow the state law in regards to gambling. Their rights are protected by federal law. Individuals that live in such states can legally gamble at these casinos. Many people in fact do just that. Others will travel outside their states to gamble while still others will settle for online gambling at casinos that will accept players from the United States.