The 2026 US Betting Guide: Legal States, Top Apps & Best Offers

Is online betting legal in your state? American.Bet helps you find out! Use our 2026 tracker to find authorized online sportsbooks, casino apps, and exclusive welcome offers for your location.

The State of the Bet: A Guide to USA Online Sports Betting in 2026

It’s 2026. The Super Bowl has wrapped up, and if you live in the right zip code, you probably placed a wager on the coin toss from your couch while eating a nacho.

For a huge chunk of the country, sports betting has transformed from a shady back-alley handshake into a mundane, regulated digital commodity – as normal as ordering an Uber or doom-scrolling TikTok. In other states with forbidden real-money mobile betting platforms, emerging prediction market apps are available. But if you cross a state line, you might suddenly find your sportsbook app locking you out, treating you like a digital fugitive.

The map of American sports betting is a patchwork quilt of “Yes,” “No,” and “It’s Complicated.” If you’re trying to figure out if you can legally place a parlay where you stand right now, here is the reality of the US market as it stands this month.

The Green Zone: Where You Can Bet From Anywhere

As of 2026, 31 states (plus Washington D.C.) have fully embraced the 21st century. In these jurisdictions, “mobile betting” actually means mobile. You can bet from your house, the bar, the bus, or the bathroom. You don’t need to drive to a casino to register; you just download an app (DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and rebranded like TheScore Bet or new Fanatics Bet), scan your ID, and go bet online on your favorite sports.

The most recent joiner to the club is Missouri. After years of legislative fumbling, the “Show-Me State” finally showed up, launching its online market on December 1, 2025. If you’re in St. Louis or Kansas City, you no longer have to drive across the border to Illinois or Kansas to place a legal bet.

Here is the current roster of full-access states:

• East Coast: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia.
• Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio.
• South: Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee.
• West: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming.

A Note on Florida: The Sunshine State is a unique beast. It is technically a “Green Zone” state, but it’s a monopoly. The Seminole Tribe owns the rights, meaning Hard Rock Bet is the only app in town. You won’t find FanDuel or DraftKings there, but you can still bet legally from your phone.

A Note on Nevada: ironically, the grandfather of gambling is the most annoying place to bet online. While mobile betting is legal, most Nevada apps still require you to walk into a physical casino to verify your ID before your account works. It’s a nostalgic, inconveniencing tether to the past.

The “Geofenced” Zone: technically Legal, Practically Annoying

This is the most confusing sports betting category. In these states, politicians will tell you mobile betting is “legal.” What they usually mean is that it’s legal if you are standing on a specific square footage of dirt owned by a casino or tribe.

If you open the app in your living room? Blocked. You have to physically drive to the partner location, park, and stand on the premises to place your digital bet. It combines the worst parts of online betting (staring at a phone) with the worst parts of retail betting (having to put on pants and drive somewhere).

• Mississippi: You can bet on your phone, but only while physically inside a casino (like the Beau Rivage or Gold Strike). Step into the parking lot, and you might lose signal.
• Washington State: Mobile betting is legal exclusively within the premises of tribal casinos.
• Wisconsin: Similar to Washington, mobile apps like the Oneida’s work only on tribal land.
• Montana: The state lottery runs the show. You can bet via the Sports Bet Montana app, but only if your phone’s GPS confirms you are inside an authorized lottery retailer (usually a bar or tavern).
• Nebraska: Retail only. You can bet at the racetrack casinos (“racinos”), but there is no mobile option yet.

The Red Zone: The Holdouts

Then there are the states where your online betting app simply won’t load. No legal bets, no regulated books. If you try to log in, you’ll get a “Restricted Location” error.

As of 2026, the three biggest population centers in America are still on the sidelines, though for different reasons.

1. California The “white whale” of sports betting remains elusive. After the disastrous 2022 election where warring ballot measures from commercial operators (like DraftKings) and Tribal nations spent hundreds of millions to destroy each other, the market has been in a deep freeze. There is no legal online betting in California, and don’t expect it in 2026. The Tribes hold the keys, and until they are comfortable with a model that protects their sovereignty, the Golden State remains dry.

2. Texas Texas is a legislative heartbreaker. The state legislature only meets in odd-numbered years. They met in 2025, and despite aggressive lobbying and support from pro teams like the Dallas Cowboys, the bill died in the Senate (again). Since the legislature won’t meet again until 2027, Texas is officially dead for 2026. If you’re in Austin or Dallas, you’re stuck with grey-market offshore sites or driving to Louisiana.

3. Georgia The Peach State is the perennial “maybe.” Every year, a bill gets introduced. Every year, it gets tangled in a web of moral opposition and arguments over where the tax money should go. In January 2026, a new bill (HB 910) was reintroduced to legalize mobile betting under the Lottery. It has support, but we’ve seen this movie before. As of right now? Illegal.

The Others: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. (Utah and Hawaii have such strict anti-gambling constitutions they will likely be the last two places on Earth to legalize it).

The “Grey” Market: The Workarounds

If you live in a Red Zone state like Texas or California, you’ve probably noticed that you can technically bet on sports apps – just not the standard ones. The market has found loopholes.

DFS Pick’em Apps: Apps like PrizePicks and Underdog Fantasy operate legally in many states where sports betting is banned (like California and Texas). They frame their games as “Daily Fantasy Sports” (DFS). Instead of betting on the Lakers to win, you pick “More” or “Less” on LeBron James scoring 25.5 points. It feels exactly like a prop bet parlay, but legally, it’s a “skill game.”

Sweepstakes Sportsbooks: A newer wave of apps (like Fliff) uses a “sweepstakes” model. You play with free currency, but can win “sweepstakes cash” that is redeemable for real money. It’s a legal gymnastics routine that allows them to operate in most US states.

Prediction Markets: In late 2024 and throughout 2025, federal courts cleared the way for “event contracts.” Platforms like Kalshi or Robinhood now allow you to trade “contracts” on event outcomes. Now you have Fanduel Predict and Fanatics Predict. More to come! You aren’t “betting” on the Chiefs; you are buying a contract that pays out $1 if the Chiefs win. The mechanics are different, but the result—putting money on a sports outcome—is the same. These are becoming the go-to for sophisticated bettors in blocked states.

What to Watch in 2026

If you are waiting for your state to flip from Red to Green, keep an eye on Minnesota. It is the closest to the finish line. The state’s tribes and racetracks have been circling a deal for two years. A new bill dropped in February 2026, and the political will is there—if they can stop arguing over the details.

For everyone else? The map is settling. We have reached a point of saturation where the “easy” states have all legalized it, and the hard ones (CA, TX) are entrenched in long-term political trench warfare.

For now, if you are in the Green Zone, enjoy the apps. If you aren’t, well, there’s always the drive to the border.

States with Legal Online Sports Betting

As of today in 2026, you can legally bet on sports online from anywhere within the state lines of Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia. In these jurisdictions, you are not required to be on casino property to place a wager online; you can register, deposit, and bet directly from your mobile app or computer regardless of your location within the state.

Here are 10 no-nonsense FAQs covering the rest of the US gambling landscape as of February 2026.

Here is the list of the top 10 sports betting sites in the USA:

1. DraftKings Sportsbook
2. FanDuel Sportsbook
3. bet365 Sportsbook (offer code: USB365)
4. BetRivers (promo code: USBTRV)
5. BetMGM Sportsbook
6. Caesars Sportsbook
7. Fanatics Sportsbook
8. TheScore Bet – New
9. Hard Rock Bet
10. Sporttrade (or Circa Sports)

The 10 Important U.S. Online Gambling FAQs

1. Is online poker dead, or can I actually play somewhere?

Online poker is alive but very geofenced. As of February 2026, you can legally play real-money online poker in six active states: New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Delaware, and West Virginia.

• The Catch: Connecticut and Rhode Island technically legalized it years ago, but no operators have launched there yet (it’s a “ghost market”).
• The Shared Pools: If you are in NJ, NV, or MI, you often play in a shared player pool (via WSOP or BetMGM), meaning you can bluff a guy in Las Vegas while sitting in Detroit.

2. What about “Online Casinos” (Slots/Blackjack)?

This is called “iGaming,” and it’s rarer than sports betting. You can legally play slots or blackjack on your phone in only seven states: Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.

• Update: Maine technically legalized it, but the market launch has been slow/stalled as of early 2026.
• Note: If you see an ad for an “online casino” in Texas or California, it is likely a Sweepstakes casino (see FAQ 4), not a regulated state casino.

3. What are “Prediction Markets” and why is everyone talking about them?

Prediction markets let you trade “event contracts” rather than place bets. Instead of betting on the Chiefs to win, you buy a “Yes” contract at 60 cents (implying a 60% chance). If they win, the contract pays out $1.

• The Big Player: Kalshi. After winning a federal court battle in late 2024, they are the only fully CFTC-regulated exchange in the US where you can trade on election outcomes, Fed rate cuts, and now even movie box office results.
• The Crypto Rival: Polymarket is the massive offshore competitor, but technically, it blocks US users (though many use VPNs, which is risky).

4. What is a “Sweepstakes Sportsbook” (like Fliff)?

These apps exploit a legal loophole. They operate as “sweepstakes” rather than gambling. You buy “Gold Coins” (play money) and get free “Sweeps Coins” as a bonus. You use the Sweeps Coins to bet; if you win, you can redeem them for real cash prizes.

• 2026 Legal Alert: California closed this loophole. As of 2026, cash-prize sweepstakes apps are effectively banned in CA. In most other states (like Texas and Georgia), they remain the primary way to bet “legally.”

5. Are “Pick’em” fantasy apps like PrizePicks actually legal?

Mostly, but they are on thin ice. Apps like PrizePicks, Underdog, and Sleeper claim to be “Daily Fantasy Sports” (DFS) because you play against “the house” rather than other players.

• The Status: They are legal in roughly 40 states (including CA, TX, and FL).
• The Crackdown: States like New York, Michigan, and Massachusetts have banned the “pick’em” style games (where you just pick Over/Under on player stats) because they look too much like sports prop betting. In those states, these apps run a “peer-to-peer” version instead.

6. Did gambling taxes actually change in 2026?

Yes. The IRS updated the reporting threshold for the first time in decades.

• The New Rule: Starting in the 2026 tax year, the reporting threshold for certain gambling winnings (triggering a Form W-2G) has effectively dropped/stabilized to $2,000 (inflation-adjusted).
• The “Phantom Income” Trap: A new provision effective Jan 1, 2026, limits the deduction of gambling losses to 90% of your winnings (previously you could deduct 100% of losses up to the amount of your winnings). This means professional bettors or high-volume players could technically owe tax on “profit” they didn’t actually make.

7. How old do I have to be to bet in 2026?

It depends on what you are betting on.

• 18+: usually allowed for Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS), Horse Racing (TVG/TwinSpires), and the Lottery.
• 21+: Strictly required for Online Sportsbooks (DraftKings/FanDuel) and iGaming (Online Casinos) in almost all states.
• Exceptions: A few states (like Kentucky and Wyoming) technically allow 18+ for sports betting, but many apps voluntarily enforce 21+ anyway to avoid regulatory headaches.

8. Which states are next to legalize?

• Minnesota: The most likely candidate for 2026. The tribes and tracks are reportedly close to a deal for sports betting.
• New York (iGaming): The state needs money. There is a strong legislative push to legalize online casinos (slots/poker) in NY by 2027 to plug budget deficits, but it likely won’t happen in early 2026.

9. Can I use crypto (Bitcoin) to bet legally in the US?

Not on regulated apps. FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM do not accept crypto directly.

• The Workaround: You can use a “Sweepstakes” casino (like Stake.us) which operates legally in most states and accepts crypto for purchasing their “Gold Coins.”
• Warning: If you bet directly in Bitcoin on a site like Bovada or BetOnline, you are using an unregulated, offshore sportsbook. You have zero consumer protection if they refuse to pay you.

10. Is Horse Racing betting different from Sports Betting?

Legally, yes. It is federally protected under the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978.

You can bet on ponies via apps like Amwager, TwinSpires or FanDuel Racing in about 40+ states, including many that ban regular sports betting (like California and Texas). It is the original “mobile betting” loophole.