There’s nothing, it seems, quite as natural to human beings as betting is. Betting has been a part of human culture on every continent on Earth. From the Natives of North America to China and everywhere in between, placing a wager on the outcome of a game has been a part of sports life.

Sports betting continues to be a big part of our culture today. Just as in times past, there is not an individual sport you may name that doesn’t have some sort of betting audience. Proponents of sports betting claim that it’s a harmless way to add a little fun to the game. Even when you’ve got never been to a bookmaker, odds are that you have made some sort of wager on a sports event. It might be a fantasy pool, it might just bet for a beer with a buddy, but you’ve got been drawn by the appeal of making a correct prediction.

For several, sports betting is more than just a way to spice up a favorite past time; it really is big business. All around the world, bets are placed on lacrosse, cricket, football, soccer agent, baseball, and almost every other sport you can name. Some people win big, a lot of people win consistently, but it’s always the books which come out on top. Let’s take a deeper look at what sports betting is all about, and some of the burning questions individuals have on the topic.

Is sports betting legal?

Among the biggest questions surrounding sports betting is whether the activity is legal. The truth is that in many parts of the world, sports betting is legal. Most of Europe and Asia regulate sports betting quite heavily, but bettors can place their wagers without anxiety about legal reprisals.

North America is an alternative story. In Canada and the USA, wagering on sports is only actually allowed in four states: Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon. Of these, only Nevada actually allows sports gambling outfits to operate.

Fundamentally, this isn’t going to necessarily mean that North Americans are out of luck if they want to wager on a game. The internet has opened up a broad range of opportunities for residents west of the Atlantic to places bets on sports, although they must do so through books operated within an area where sports gambling is legal. Even as such, the status of those operations is a little bit shady.

How does sports betting work?

Official sports bets, those which take place through bookies rather than buddies, are carefully measured odds provided by shrewd business number crunchers. Whether we have been discussing Las Vegas or Beijing, you can make sure that the books are one step in front of your average bettor in terms of wagering.

This is not to say that you do not stand the possibility of winning whenever you place a bet, because one of the appeals of laying a wager on a sports event is that victory is equal parts knowledge and luck (as opposed to casino wagering, which is just about just luck regardless of what Charlton Heston has to say!).

The sports books offer several different kinds of bets, all of which are designed so that the book itself makes a profit no matter the outcome of the event. That profit is known as the vigorish (vig for short). It’s usually around $10, paid through the individual that loses the wager.