Sports betting has become a huge industry in many parts of the US, as the majority of states have started to allow this activity online. However, there are still some places where you can’t yet legally place a wager. What is the current situation there, and how could their future vary from other states?
California, Texas, and Georgia are the largest markets where sports betting is not yet legal. As three of the country's most populous states, they could eventually be among the country’s biggest betting markets, but they each currently need some changes to be voted through to make these regulations advances.
California’s fate could be decided in the next couple of years. The Native American tribes currently have exclusive rights to gambling licenses, with attempts to bring in new legislation so far failing. Commercial sportsbook operators are waiting for the chance to enter this huge market, but we shouldn’t expect to see any advance before late 2026 at the earliest.
Texas can’t pass changes to its state constitution until the Texas Legislature next meets, which would be in 2027. As for Georgia, attempts to push a bill through in 2026 failed for the seventh time, meaning that November 2026 is the earliest that we can hope to see another attempt be made in Georgia.
Some states have long-established betting markets, while others are relatively new and have unique elements. If we start by looking at Florida, it’s legal but is dominated by the Hard Rock Bet app and the Seminole Tribe, since no other operators are allowed here.
The age limit is something else that varies between states. Most require gamblers to be aged 21 or over, but some have lowered this limit to 18+, including Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. If we look at the Missouri market, it’s the most recent state to have allowed sports betting. It is allowing up to 14 mobile operators, and the new market was officially opened at the start of December.
When looking at the list of these US betting sites to get started, we can see that 32 states and Washington D.C., all allow some sort of sports betting to be carried out online. Since it was written before December, we can also add Missouri to that list now. Unibet, bet365, and Paddy Power are among the well-known brands that are listed.
If the three holdouts all approve new legislation, we can expect to see many of the same brands bid for licenses to operate there. These are the companies that know how to set up a new online sportsbook in the American market and stick closely to each state’s rules.
All three of the big holdout states have the chance to pass legislation in the next few years that would allow legalized sports betting. As we’ve seen in some of the other states, there are different ways to do this that can be implemented to meet each region’s specific needs.
