Betting on esports is growing into a very popular activity. But there have long been complications surrounding online gambling and its’t allow certain forms of unregulated betting, and specifically don’t allow online gambling, so esports betting is a no-go.
Gambling has a long history of changing laws that vary from country to country. Online gambling is pretty new, and fluctuates even more. Whether or not online gambling is legal in your country could change frequently. But in general, it isn’t even esports betting that is legal or illegal, but online gambling as a whole.
The short answer is: no. Esports betting isn’t technically legal in the U.S. Some sites allow people to bet using in-game items, but not real money. However, that does not mean people can’t still wager money on esports matches. They just have to do it through websites based in other countries, similar to how U.S. presidential election betting is illegal in the U.S., but other countries bet on our elections.
Ironically, the U.S. does have an esports gambling website, but so far, the U.S. is not included in the list of countries that are allowed to bet through the site. Unikrn, a Seattle-based website, allows you to bet on League of Legends, CS:GO, and other big esports like Dota 2, Starcraft 2, and Hearthstone.
As of right now, Unikrn only allows real money betting in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the U.K., but the site itself is open to everyone, with hopes of slowly including more and more countries. If your country doesn’t support the use of real money in online gambling, Unikrn has a virtual currency, Unikoins, which can be used to bet with and to enter raffles held by Unikrn, but they are not exchangeable for real money.
Where sports betting has been legitimized, it is a difficult regulatory argument to make that esports ought not to be as well. Especially when sports-based esports are illegal in a region to gamble on, but the sport itself isn’t! Players with rapid-fire APM (actions per minute) might quarrel with the notion that they’re not athletes themselves, and it’s a sentiment surprisingly not without merit.
In most cases, esports betting is legal. It’s just that there are many restrictions on online betting itself, which is the most practical way for esports betting to work, considering that’s where the games are played and viewed. And even when it isn’t technically illegal, there are so many hurdles to jump through in order for a website to host online gambling without getting in trouble.
Online gambling is legal in three U.S. states: New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada. But due to restrictions on sports betting, esports betting is technically not allowed, unless there is an element of fantasy to it.
Esports betting is legal (or is at least tolerated, regulated, or not a criminal offense) in the following countries, many of which are now international hubs for gambling emporiums:
Many other countries outlaw online sports betting, but still many of their citizens participate through legal sites based in different countries. And again, this may change multiple times in the following years, as esports itself is still in it’s infancy, especially in the gambling scene.
In order for esports betting to be perfectly legal in a country, that country would have to allow online betting and sports betting, which are not always seen as equal.
“But the main trouble is the maturity of eSports audience and big amount of fraud from the site of the eSports betting sites that lead to great disappointment and lack of trust from the gamers worldwide,” says Yegor Zubarets, the founder of CyberBet.Ninja, an esports betting site.
As long as esports have been around, there have been cases of match fixing in esports, in which games will be thrown by teams in order to manipulate betting.
Nevertheless, esports is gaining ground, as major brands like Bud Light are pumping money into the industry, and sports celebrities such as Shaq himself have taken interest enough to invest in esports teams. That should give the esports community quite a bit of backing.
Whether or not websites will soon be able to legally host large-scale esports betting, Americans may soon be betting on esports on a smaller scale, like an office betting pool, or betting your friend twenty bucks on a big game, as TBS is airing esports games as regular Fight Night-like events.
There are countries where esports betting is legal, and there are sites that allow you to bet, even from overseas. Many of the laws surrounding it are murky at best, and they’re always changing. If your country doesn’t allow it yet, they may soon. And you may be able to find a loophole anyway. But do your research, and don’t get yourself in trouble.
