is betting legal in the USA? (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

I live in Memphis, TN. You cannot bet anywhere in the state of Tennessee, in any form (I believe this includes bingo)...legally.
Go south to Tunica, MS and you can bet in Las Vegas- or Atlantic-City style casinos like Harrah's, Gold Strike, Sam's Town, Horseshoe, Fitzgerald's, etc.
Go west across the river to West Memphis and you can bet at the Southland Greyhound Dog Track.
Go northeast into Kentucky and you can bet on the ponies.
5 years ago, me and the missus went to Gatlinburg, TN., on the eastern end of the state, and went through the Smokey Mountains National Park into North Carolina. While there we visited the Cherokee Reservation. We were able to bet in the tribal casinos there.
A few months ago, we visited St. Louis, Missouri. Along the way we passed several riverboat casinos there in Missouri. While in St. Louis we bought a lottery ticket.
There are strong forces in TN. that are opposed to allowing gambling to come into the state in any form. It's nice that they are willing to let the gamblers take their money to so many nearby places out-of-state! Yet people complain when the state needs to raise taxes, or else lower the quality of education and other services.
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DAVE/Memphis

MORE TV ON DVD, PLEASE!

 

[Ryan Wright]

quote: A tax on people who are looking to get rich quick. A "poor man's tax."[/quote]
Just like state lotteries. Nevermind the little issue that the state has given itself a monopoly on gambling. "We can run a legal, statewide gambling organization, but nobody else can. Ha ha ha ha!"
Reminds me of a certain software company.......
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-Ryan ( http://www.ryanwright.com )
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you do criticize them, you'll be a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
[Edited last by Ryan Wright on October 11, 2001 at 12:16 PM]

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

quote: Thus, in Florida betting on horse racing at the track is legal, but other types of gambling is illegal, except on certain properties of the Seminole Nation in which gambling is legal.[/quote]
Actually, it is much murkier than that here. You can bet on Jai Lai. You can bet on horseraces from Jai Lai frontons, and watch them on closed-circuit TV, miles from the track. But not too many other places. I know someone who belongs to some kind of fraternal organization that runs poker nights, and even boxing matches, and they're OK thanks to some obscure loophole in the local regulations. And you can board a cruise ship at a couple of ports, sail just beyond the three mile limit, and bet your brains out. And then, of course, there's the lottery.
BTW, the gambling operation in The Sting was definitely illegal, which was kind of the point. What they set up was a phony "wire service". The real ones were mob operated in the days before live broadcasts of everything, and they transmitted the results of horse races from tracks across the country to folks in distant cities who absolutely could not place a legal bet where they were located. The problem was that, in addition to providing this already illegal service, the mobsters couldn't resist enriching themselves even further by delaying reports of races from certain tracks and putting down large bets on races that had already been run. Al Capone, among others, dabbled in the wire services, which were a major source of organized crime income before Bugsy Seagal went west and muscled in on the already burgeoning casino industry in Vegas.
Regards,
Joe
[Edited last by Joseph DeMartino on October 11, 2001 at 10:48 PM]