This policy adjustment reflects the growing normalization of sports gambling in American culture. Under the new guidelines, individuals affiliated with NCAA programs may now legally wager on professional leagues such as the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and WNBA.

However, betting on college sports remains strictly prohibited. The NCAA continues to bar student-athletes and staff from placing bets on collegiate competitions or sharing insider information with gamblers.

Why The NCAA Changed The Rules?

Despite approving the change, Division II and III leaders emphasized that the decision should not be interpreted as an endorsement of sports betting. In their joint statement, they urged institutions to prioritize harm reduction and utilize resources from the NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports and the Sport Science Institute.

The timing of the policy shift is notable, as the NCAA is currently investigating multiple sports betting violations across its member schools. It also follows another recent reform: the adoption of a 15-day transfer window for college football players in January.

Josh Whitman, Illinois athletic director and chair of the Division I Administrative Committee, acknowledged the ongoing concerns about gambling risks. However, he explained that the committee ultimately chose to ease restrictions to better reflect the freedoms of the broader student population. “This change allows the NCAA, the conferences, and the member schools to focus on protecting the integrity of college games while, at the same time, encouraging healthy habits for student-athletes who choose to engage in betting activities on professional sports,” Whitman said.

Can You Wager On Sports Online In The USA?

Yes, you can legally wager on sports online in the USA, but in-state options are limited. As of 2025, online sports betting is legal in 30 US states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Other states only have access to online gambling sites that service US players.

To make matters more confusing, a select few states have sent cease-and-desist letters to popular online sportsbooks that accept their players. While the letters haven’t completely shut down legal online gambling sites, it has made access to popular sites harder for some players.

The post NCAA Loosens Sports Betting Rules for Athletes and Staff first appeared on Onlinegambling.legal.

But last week – just one day before Thanksgiving – several state-licensed sportsbooks finally went online.

Before, there were no online options, which – even taking MD’s small size into account – was a major shortcoming. More than any other kind of gambling, sports betting really hits its stride when offered over the Internet.

While online casino and online poker gambling are lots of fun, those gaming categories are more formal and “deliberate.” Traveling to a physical casino to play the slots or take your place at the felts doesn’t feel unnecessary or outdated, even in 2022.

But for sports betting – which is comparatively hyper-casual in nature – the lack of online options is a total dealbreaker for the majority of potential bettors.

And that’s been the case for years.

Sports bettors place their wagers at wildly different times during the course of a given week. Three bets tonight, five bets tomorrow, a dozen this weekend, a few futures for next month’s playoffs. You get the idea.

That kind of activity absolutely does not lend itself to the retail gambling experience.

If you’ve got to drive to your local casino every time you want to place a sports bet, the bottom line is that you’re not going to be placing very many sports bets.

Why Online Sports Betting Matters

Sports gambling is marathon gambling: It lasts all season long. Heck, it lasts all year long.

Imagine making fantasy sports players show up at some physical storefront 20 miles away to set their lines for all the day’s games, day after day after day. They wouldn’t do it! Well, sports betting works the exact same way and targets the exact same kinds of gamblers.

Frankly, now that half of the United States has legalized sports betting since the 2018 PASPA overturn, it’s downright asinine that some states still prioritize brick-and-mortar sportsbooks over online sportsbooks.

Yes, we know the rationale involved, that online sports betting would “cannibalize” casino profits at actual casino venues.

Sports betting, after all, is a small market compared to casino gambling. The idea here is that local casinos need the draw of sports betting to get people onto their gaming floors. Win a little on Monday Night Football, lose a lot on Monday Night Slots.

There’s some truth to that.

But there’s a lot more truth to this: Sports bettors and casino gamblers enjoy a very limited overlap.

Most people stick to one or the other, and nobody who wants to play casino games is going to only play them if they can also place some sports bets. And vice versa.

Ahead Of The Curve…

…But a swing and a miss.

Still, we’re glad to say that most states are finally figuring this out. Almost all new legislation today seems to target both in-person and online sports betting concurrently.

(Online gambling – or iGaming – is still a bridge too far for most states, including MD. Ditto for legal online poker.)

To Maryland’s credit, the state actually did legalize retail and Internet-based sports gambling at the same time. The delay in getting the online component off the ground has been more “red tape” in nature than anything else.

It took four months to get Maryland House Bill 940 hammered out, and it took MD Gov. Larry Hogan another five months to actually sign the thing. Then came the drawn-out application process for providers, and here we are.

Now, this general lack of urgency isn’t that unusual. But it’s nevertheless a little odd in MD’s case.

Most states that drag their feet getting online sports betting up and running do so as a result of trying to shoehorn some lesser-known platform’s operator into a partnership with the state’s lottery agency.

This is almost always a disaster (low bids are usually as catastrophic as no-bids), and it almost always causes significant delays.

We’ve seen just such cases in states like Oregon (OR finally launched something called Scoreboard, which is a subpar product despite its admittedly clever name) and regions like Washington DC (which has yet to wipe the egg off its face).

But the Maryland Lottery isn’t involved in this.

At least, not in the capacity of sports betting provider. While the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency oversees the regulations policing the sports betting industry inside MD, that’s the extent of its involvement.

An Ace In The Hole

Maryland sports betting should have been a mundane formality instead of a year-long odyssey. It was on deck the moment the bill was signed into law!

Or, at least, it should have been.

See, Maryland actually allowed the biggest names in the industry to open their own online sportsbooks in the state.

This move should have expedited things across the board.

These companies already have online sports betting services and apps up and running in multiple other states. Further, as established businesses, they could easily be vetted in an afternoon for whatever licensing requirements the state put forth.

But despite all that, it still took an entire year.

So, was it worth the wait?

The More, The Merrier

The following brands – most of which you’re likely to recognize – comprise the state’s current slate of online sportsbooks:

• DraftKings Maryland Sportsbook
• Caesars Maryland Sportsbook
• BetMGM Maryland Sportsbook
• FanDuel Maryland Sportsbook
• PointsBet Maryland Sportsbook
• BetRivers Maryland Sportsbook

In addition to the above properties (which are all currently live), several others are awaiting approval of their applications. And many, many more could be on the way, too.

For some mysterious reason unknown to the whole of mankind, Maryland sports betting laws allow for a whopping 60 online sports betting licenses!

That means the full selection of domestic books won’t be realized for another year or two at least. And when they are, many of those books are likely to be truly local – 100% unknown upstarts born and bred in the Free State.

That should be interesting.

But it’s also irrelevant. With the operators already operating, you already know you can trust MD’s regulated sports betting product.

Are Maryland Sportsbooks Actually Better?

The real question is whether or not that MD sports betting product is actually better than the offshore sports betting product state residents have had access to for the last few decades.

Remember, MD laws never barred access to offshore sports betting sites, and they still don’t. As long as a sportsbook is located outside of MD and US borders, it remains legal to use.

Today, even as the legal sports betting age in Maryland is 21 and up, offshore books accept state residents at just 18 years old.

That alone is one major reason why offshore online betting remains a better and more accessible product that in-state online betting.

There are, of course, several other reasons why we prefer legal online gambling sites based outside of MD to those based inside of MD.

Offshore Sports Betting Advantages

In addition to having a lower minimum legal betting age, offshore sites aren’t limited to sports betting.

It’s going to be a long time before Maryland legalizes online casino gambling or online poker, but all the most reputable offshore gambling sites offer both of those markets under the same roof as to their sports betting lines.

For sports betting in particular, offshore books are superior in the number of daily bets available, the number of US and international sports leagues supported, and the fact that they can also post odds on things like television, movies, politics, current events, and similar fare.

But even if we limit ourselves just to the major sports that both domestic and international sportsbooks cover as a matter of course, the offshore options still provide a better overall product.

That’s because local Maryland sportsbooks are “geofenced.” In other words, to bet sports online in MD, you have to physically be in Maryland.

This matters for two reasons:

First, you can only bet if you’re inside the state. If you commute across state lines for work – or if you’re simply hitting the road on some well-deserved vacation – you won’t be able to bet until you’re back home.

Second (and much more pressingly), you’re going to experience major home team bias.

Any local favorites – whether they’re actually favorites or not – are going to get more action than they otherwise would. This “hometown skew” can shift the odds by 20-30 points, and often even more.

In practice, this means fewer people will bet against MD teams when they’re legitimate favorites, and more people will bet in favor of MD teams when they’re legitimate underdogs.

Consider: A -120 line on the favored Ravens might be -150 at MD-based sportsbooks, while a +140 line on the underdog Orioles might be +120.

But offshore, bets are taken from all across America, and the lines have no such hometown bias. These lines are a better – and often more valuable – representation of reality.

At the very least, if you plan to bet with a local online MD bookie, you should shop lines with sites like MyBookie Sportsbook to make sure you’re getting the most for your money.

Bitcoin Betting And Bonuses

Other areas in which offshore sportsbooks outshine domestic operators have to do with the financial side of things.

For one, offshore sports betting providers tend to have much better bonuses and promotions.

While domestic venues have occasional promos, their bonuses come with far more restrictive rollover terms. They usually also have bonus time limits of 2-4 weeks, which negatively impacts your sports betting free play options.

On the other hand, most offshore sites have lower wagering requirements and feature open-ended bonuses that don’t expire.

Lastly but by no means leastly, offshore sports betting sites support cryptocurrency for deposits and withdrawals. You can’t bet with Bitcoin at a local MD sportsbook venue, which means you could lose big in the long run – even when you win your bets!

All in all, we’re glad that legal Maryland online sports betting is finally live. These are good books, and they run some great betting apps.

But all the same, we’re sticking with the offshore sites we already know and love.

The post Maryland Finally Launches Online Sports Betting first appeared on Onlinegambling.legal.

As states – now 30 and counting – have legalized local sports gambling (most of which comes with a legal online/mobile betting component), some states have also included legal online casino gambling and even legal online poker as part of their expansion packages.

While there are far fewer states with these non-sports gambling markets, online casino gambling – aka iGaming – is definitely picking up steam, as is online poker gambling.

So far, nearly 10 US states with legal online gambling offer the pair of pastimes in some form or another, though iGaming is slightly more available than Internet-based poker.

Still, with very few exceptions, legal domestic gambling is geofenced to the specific states where these markets have been legalized. Today, just three states allow for cross-border play – which is exclusively limited to online poker.

These states are Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. That said, Pennsylvania could be prepared to pull up a seat at the felts, and according to the most recent reports, Michigan has just gone all-in.

https://www.cdcgamingreports.com/pennsylvania-state-has-nothing-pending-to-follow-michigan-into-multi-state-poker-compact/

Should PA join MI in this interstate poker compact, it would bring the US multi-state online poker count up to five.

And as with most things, once the ball gets rolling, it’s probably only a matter of time before several other states see the benefit and hop on the gravy train, too.

That said, you can expect this cross-border play – where pots are combined so payouts can be much bigger and far more compelling to far more players (think the Powerball or Mega Millions interstate lotteries) – to remain limited to online poker.

Thanks to the Federal Wire Act, interstate online sports betting is 100% off the table for the foreseeable future, but interstate online casino gambling is bound by zero federal restrictions.

However, the fact that no states with legal local iGaming have pursued pooling their online casino products by now probably means that there’s adequate financial rationale to keep iGaming limited to in-state play going forward.

There’s also those aforementioned cross-border lotteries to consider.

The long-established Powerball and Mega Millions brands have an incredible lobbying presence in all states where their games are played, and they have a very clear interest in keeping things like multi-state online slots and multi-state online blackjack games off the table.

Of course, legal online gambling isn’t limited to states where the pastime is authorized domestically.

Since the early 1990s, it’s actually been legal in the US to gamble at real-money online casinos, real-money online sportsbooks, legit online poker rooms, and even international horse racebooks [The 2022 Belmont Stakes is this Saturday! – Ed.].

And these sites are cross-border by default.

As a result, if you join an international gambling site, you can legally play all the traditional and modern casino games you expect, plus you’ll have a shot at winning the biggest possible progressive slot jackpots, massive online blackjack tournament payouts, huge online poker pots, daily horse racing exactas and trifectas, and more.

In other words, even as the legal online gambling industry continues to expand – and even as some of the momentum shifts from sports betting exclusivity to iGaming and poker – you’ll still almost always be better off going with a respected, reputable, and established offshore betting site.

The domestic gambling industry might be changing rapidly, but for longtime legal online bettors, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The post Can Legal Interstate Gambling Ever Compete With International Online Betting? first appeared on Onlinegambling.legal.