online sports betting

Betting on sports in the United States has been around as long as sports have been played in America. Indeed, the early British colonists had gambling in their blood due to the fact that their fathers (and their fathers) had been gambling for generations for pleasure and entertainment, and not solely for monetary gain.
In those early days, folks would place wagers on makeshift horse races, cock fights and bare-knuckles fist-fights. It didn't take long, however, before folks were placing bets on increasingly more sporting matches.
It is during the 19th and 20th Centuries that horse racing experienced its greatest popularity. Although the pastime was enjoyed and bet on mainly by the upper class, after the Civil War horse tracks starting cropping up all over the eastern states landscape with more gamblers than ever before, and from all economic walks of life, visiting and betting at the racetracks.
Pre-Internet Online Sports Betting
By the 1920s the US horse racing industry had peaked with more than 300 racetracks operating and accepting wagers. Thousands of off-track betting joints, including pool halls, were linked to the racetracks by telegraph wires. Local sports bettors no longer had to be at the actual track to place their bets; they could now place their bets on horses from any of a vast number of racing venues all over the country. Until professional sports leagues were established and grabbed the nation's gamblers' attention, wagering on horse racing topped the list as the most popular form of wagering.
In the later 1900's, pro baseball starting gaining popularity and with it, betting on the game. Baseball's 'pool cards' became common in eastern cities and, similar to today's parlay cards, offered gamblers a wide choice of baseball wagering options, including placing as little as 10-cent bets.
Prior to 1958, the horse-racing betting industry was limited to small "turf clubs" like Del Mar and Churchill Downs. Until then, none of Las Vegas' major casinos provided any sports betting services. That is, until Sam ‘Momo' Giancana, a so-called Chicago gangster, got into the act with his help in opening the Stardust.
With the explosion of televised sports in the 1960s and 1970s, sports betting took on a whole new meaning, plus tons of new sports betting enthusiasts.
A major shift in the history of sports betting occurred in 1974 when the United States federal government eliminated a 10 percent tax on sports wagers. Hence, major casinos were compelled to open sportsbooks to both increase their overall revenues, but also as a means to discourage customers from leaving the casino they're in, so that they can place a sports bet elsewhere.
In 1976, bookie Frank ‘Lefty' Rosenthal developed what would become a model for future sportsbooks. His luxurious Stardust operation featured seating for 300 gamblers and 6 giant television screens. Nowadays, most of Las Vegas' major casinos offer sports betting services.
Online Sports Betting Just Kicking Off
With the advent of the Internet, it was a safe bet to predict that sports betting would also rise to new heights, as have online casinos in general and virtually every other industry known to man. Today, gambling on sports is more popular than ever, both online and off. In fact, Nevada generated nearly $2 billion in wagers last year placed from more than 150 of the state's sports books.
According to an ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) article, the online sports betting industry took in an estimated $63 billion in 2003. The article also estimated that 25% of US citizens placed wagers on at least one sporting event that year, while 15% of Americans bet on sporting events on a regular basis.