You Can Bet on Sports Where?

In the United States, sports betting is greatly restricted by law.  The two key federal laws are the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) and the Wire Act.  This does not mean that sports betting does not occur in the US, it's just that the vast majority is done illegally.  Approximately $2.5 billion is wagered on sports each year in Nevada, but that is a pittance compared to the upwards of $500 billion of sports wagers each year in the US.  There are efforts to expand legal sports wagering in the US at the state level, particularly in New Jersey and California.  You can find posts on those efforts here and here.

Other countries are actually farther ahead of the US in recognizing the fact that sports betting is here, it's big and it's permanent.  A colleague sent me some pictures of a sports wagering outlet in a place about as out of the way from the US as possible - Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.  Where is that?  About 300 miles northeast of Afghanistan!  Kyrgyzstan is located on the western border of China.  See for yourself...Google Maps / Bishkek

What is interesting is the globality of sports wagering AND the reality that English is truly the world's language.  Not that knowing multiple languages isn't useful, but an English-only speaker by and large could get by in many more places than you might think.