State Gambling Laws

Current through Sep. 1, 2014

Click on the name of a State in the table below to read the excerpted text  of its basic gambling laws. Websites containing state statutes are available for all states, although they may be out of date. The excerpts presented here are taken from those websites.  US Gambling Laws also provides hyperlinks to those websites for most of the gambling laws that are excerpted.  It may take a long time before new provisions of a state law are incorporated into the online text the state makes available.  Before acting on any information contained in Gambling-Law-US.com you should get up to date and to the point advice from a lawyer.

The excerpts generally include state constitutional provisions specifically about gambling, "aiding and abetting" provisions of the state's criminal laws, the basic criminal gambling laws and some references to the legalized gaming laws in a few of the states.  Coverage of state charitable gaming laws is provided by links on my Charitable Gaming page.

Online gambling and poker legislation in the U.S. is changing on a state by state basis.  New Jersey, for example, legalized online gambling and poker in November 2013, offering some hope to U.S. players in other states for USA online casinos. Read below for a breakdown of other states to see the latest law updates.

Gambling-Law-us.com focuses primarily on the state laws applicable to lotteries, social gambling and illegal, unlicensed casino-style, or professional, gambling.  Legalized gaming, where dealt with, is covered in a more summary form.