If you are a sports fan, odds are very good that at one point or another you have engaged in certain form of sports betting. You might are already associated with a fantasy pool, you could have bet a beer with a buddy, you may even have placed a couple of bets on the outcome of the Super Bowl or March Madness.

Although sports quality gambling is so common it’s almost natural (in fact, it has been a part of human culture for as long as sport itself), the very fact is the fact that many forms of sports gambling we engage in are actually illegal. This really is particularly true if you are living in Canada or perhaps the United States.

The big argument against gambling on most sports in these countries is a belief that betting on sports has the potential to undermine the integrity of the game. Although within the past this tended to hold true with all sports, today it’s more a problem with minor sports and collegiate level athletics than the professional leagues.

The reasoning because of this, bear in mind, is fairly clear-cut. Athletes who are receiving little if any money for playing their sport will be more susceptible to bribes from individuals with a vested monetary interest within the game they are playing. Whenever you are playing for nothing however the joy of it, the offer of several thousand dollars to throw the game can be very tempting. Sports history is rife with illustrations of athletes both minor and pro that have succumbed to this temptation.

Legalities aside, it’s pretty obvious that sports betting is still a significant part of our culture. Actually, it’s quite rare to hear of circumstances through which anyone beyond those directly involved with the game even get in trouble for engaging in sports betting. Those involved would include coaches, officials, and players, rarely those betting on the game itself.

Actually, you could claim that sports gambling is essentially an “open crime” right now. Odds and money lines are posted on all the major sports channels, and bookmakers operate online with relative impunity. You’ll find minimum efforts to stop mass betting on sports, which appears to indicate that eventually the laws prohibiting the activity will be done away with for good.

In the meantime, although, if you need to get a piece of betting action on a sport but want to stay well in the law, you will discover a couple of ways to do it. Let’s take a quick look.

Pari-mutuel betting: There are certain sports in which the government actually endorses betting. This sort of betting is known as pari-mutuel, or revenue shared, gambling. Strictly regulated, it applies only to dog and horse racing, and jai alai. All of these events are quite short, and thus harder to rig in relation to results. And, the government gets a cut of all bets!

Go to Vegas! Nevada is the one state in which sports betting is legal and practiced as well. Again, who knows the real reasons, but there are Nevada bookies ready to take bets from people all over the country.

Go online: In the majority of of the rest of the world, sports betting is regulated and not seen as an issue. That means that because of the internet, people from North America can place their bets with well known bookies throughout the world. Bookmakers out of Vegas, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and any range of other countries have a presence online. Just make sure that they are going to take your money; some are leery of American bettors do to the government’s ambiguity on the issue of sports gambling.