This comes up a lot in betting circles and we have opinions on it after watching the US market develop since the Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018.
We are not lawyers. This is just our perspective as people who bet on sports every week.
What we think works
Before legalization we were betting with offshore sportsbooks that had zero accountability.
If they did not pay you out there was nothing you could do about it. The regulated market fixed that and we are glad it exists.
Having licensed operators that are required to actually pay your winnings and give you somewhere to escalate disputes is a genuine improvement over how things used to be.
What we think has gone wrong
Some states got greedy. There is no other way to put it.
We have seen states slap 50% plus tax rates on sportsbook operators and then wonder why the odds in their state are worse than what you can find in other markets.
That tax does not just hit the sportsbook.
It hits your wallet because the book has to build that cost into the odds they offer you.
We have a friend in New York who still uses an offshore book because the legal options in his state offer consistently worse lines than what he can get elsewhere.
When your regulated market is pushing customers back to offshore sites that is a pretty clear sign something went wrong with how you set it up.
The state-by-state mess
Every state did their own thing after PASPA fell and the result is a patchwork where your experience as a bettor depends entirely on your zip code.
Some states have ten or twelve sportsbooks competing for your business and the odds are sharp.
Others gave out two or three licenses and created a market with almost no competition.
We have driven across state lines to place bets before because the app on our phone was showing better numbers one state over.
That is absurd but it is the reality of how this market works right now.
Where we land
Regulation is good. Consumer protection is good. But some states went too far and built frameworks that made the legal product worse than what bettors had before.
The states that kept tax rates reasonable and let multiple operators compete are the ones where bettors are getting the best deal.
