Is Online Sports Betting Safe For US Players?

Sports betting as a hobby offers enough thrills and excitement without asking bettors to put their own personal safety or financial security on the line. One of the first questions anyone unfamiliar with betting on sports online or on land usually asks us is which of the two options is safest.

If the term “safe” sounds general, that’s because it is. We know that legal online sportsbooks are all based overseas, and this can make US citizens nervous in a variety of ways. They want to know whether or not they can be legally prosecuted for using these foreign sites, how well protected their identity will be while betting online, and most of all, that their hard earned money will remain safe and sound. This can make it seem as though land based sports betting is the safer option, but that’s before taking a closer look.

The biggest advantage online sportsbooks provide is the opportunity to bet with a legitimate business. Due to several laws on the subject, most states are unable to sanction sports betting within their borders, meaning the only option US citizens can turn to on land is illicit, underground sportsbooks. Anyone concerned with safety will obviously want to steer clear of these operations since they are not only a hazard to one’s personal, physical safety, but certainly their financial security.

Throughout this page, and the rest of BestUSASportsbooks.com for that matter, we will go over the safest means of betting sports, and hope to answer any questions that our readers may have concerning the legitimacy of these online sportsbooks as businesses. At the end of the day you will find that every single sportsbook we list anywhere on the site is as safe as you can get.

As we outline in greater detail on our legal page, there are no federal laws that prohibit US residents from betting with online sportsbooks. While residents may want to consult with laws for their individual states, they still mostly apply to the facilitation and profit from sports betting, not the actual participation in it. The spirit of most laws is to break up organized crime and other large syndicates, never to attack individual bettors.

So, while even though one cannot find themselves in too much legal hot water for the simple act of betting, associating with as few criminal elements as possible is always preferable. This is why we strongly prefer the use of online sportsbooks to their land based counterparts which must, in accordance with federal law, act illicitly. Still, no one who merely bets on sports will ever have to worry about facing legal prosecution from using these well reputed sportsbooks, so that should be at least one major concern off just about everyone’s list.

We know that we won’t be thrown in jail for betting online or on land, but we’ve all heard the stories before of websites being shut down and the federal government seizing all the assets that were tied up in them. Fortunately, the legal sports betting sites for USA players listed on this website are all located overseas, putting them well outside the reach of any US jurisdiction.

This means that any money that makes it into your legal sportsbook will most assuredly stay there. These USA online sportsbooks are legitimate businesses protected by the laws of their native countries, therefore, any money deposited in them is protected not only in accordance with the law of their countries, but at the behest of reputable international gaming commissions. Not only is the online sportsbook of your choice not going anywhere, but all money invested in it will be put under lock and key.

Compare this to a land based sportsbook which, in order to function in the United States would need to be an illicit operation. The law could come down and seize these at any point in time, therefore all funds associated with it would be forfeit. When it comes to the threat of closure, online overseas sportsbooks have their land based counterparts beat by a mile.

As legitimate business that have been in operation for the better part of a decade, these sports betting sites have mastered the art of the secure financial transaction. You will find that these businesses practice several forms of verification before even allowing you to use your credit card to make a deposit, and that once you do, your information is sent via one of the most secured lines available on the entire internet, even including the folks over at Amazon.

For land based sportsbooks as well as online sportsbooks not listed on this page, we simply cannot make that guarantee. While it’s obvious that illicit land based sportsbooks (which, unless you live in Nevada, are your only option for land based betting) probably won’t take credit cards. Instead, these illegal operations will force you to deal with large amounts of cash, and may then do whatever they please with the cash once it’s in hand. Whereas associating with known criminals face to face is fairly obviously a bad idea, illicit online sportsbooks may be a little sneakier.

They may claim that they have a “secure” financial system, but in our experience, in most cases when you bet with sportsbooks other than those listed on this page, information may wind up floating away somewhere. That’s why it’s important to trust a legitimate online sportsbook with your betting needs: in order to hang onto endorsements from their gaming commissions, they absolutely may not under any circumstances share any of your personal information.

In our many years of experience with legal online sportsbooks, we have never run into any issues with identity theft. We are confident in this principally because these online sportsbooks do not collect more information than is absolutely necessary. If you are signing up with a sports betting site that requests a social security number or anything strangely personal, abandon ship! The websites we endorse will collect just enough information to confirm your email and mail you out a check. Furthermore, you may rest assured that this information will be secured in a vault as the gaming commissions for whom these websites rely on approval from do not allow personal information about bettors to be shared.

Once you sign up with one of these USA online sportsbooks you may bet with ease, for even though your information is traveling overseas, it is doing so in the safest and most secure manner possible.

Perhaps the best part about betting on sports online rather than in person is the discretion that an online sportsbook allows. Even though sports betting is a completely legal activity, it should still be up to every individual bettor who they want knowing they bet on sports. With these top sportsbooks for USA residents, each bettor has that freedom.

With an illicit, land based sportsbook, this may not necessarily be the case. In most cases it will not be possible to do business with an illicit sportsbook from home (smart criminals don’t incriminate themselves on the phone) so you will need to go out to public or private locations where you could be seen associating with a criminal element. Compare this to sending your bets overseas via the internet where no one ever even needs to know that you have opened an account with an online sportsbook, and you have a wholly discrete operation on your hands.

When you are searching for a sports betting site to do business with, many factors need to come into play. We personally vouch for every individual sports betting site listed on this page as some of the safest in the business. After operating overseas and catering to an American audience for well over a decade, each of these websites has mastered the art of offering sports betting over a secured system. Giving any of these sites a try means an exercise in safety, security, and most of all, discretion.