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Guide — confirm current status before you deposit

Is Sports Betting Legal in Your State?

The actual status, not the assumption — this changes every legislative session, so treat this as a starting point, not the final word.

How this actually works

Since the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on state-level sports betting in 2018, there’s been no single national answer — each state decides for itself whether to legalize it, how to regulate it, and which operators get licensed. That’s why the same national sportsbook ad can be legally accurate in one state and completely irrelevant in the one next door.

The states people actually ask about

Florida

Complicated

Legal, but not the way most people expect — mobile sports betting runs through a compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe, with Hard Rock Bet as the effectively exclusive operator. FanDuel and DraftKings largely aren't part of that arrangement. This compact has faced legal challenges before — confirm current status.

Texas

Not legal

Not legal as of this writing. Despite repeated legislative attempts, Texas has not passed a law legalizing online sports betting. A site that's technically reachable from a Texas IP address isn't the same thing as a site that's legal to use there.

California

Not legal

Not legal. California voters rejected both a tribal in-person model (Prop 26) and an online model (Prop 27) in a 2022 ballot. There is no legal, licensed way to bet on sports online in California as of this writing.

Georgia

Not legal

Not legal as of this writing. Multiple legislative attempts have failed to pass — this is one of the more actively debated states each session, so confirm current status if you're reading this any real time after publication.

Ohio

Legal

Legal — Ohio launched regulated online sports betting January 1, 2023, with most major national sportsbooks licensed to operate there.

Arizona

Legal

Legal — Arizona launched regulated online sports betting in September 2021.

Indiana

Legal

Legal — one of the earlier states to launch regulated online sports betting, in 2019.

Where to verify this yourself

Don’t take our word for it — each state’s own regulator publishes the current rules directly:

Texas, California, and Georgia don’t have a sports-betting regulator to link to for the simple reason that none of them have legalized it — that absence is itself part of the answer.

What to actually check before depositing, regardless of your state

  • Confirm your state’s current status directly — a state gaming or racing commission site is the real source of truth, not a forum post or an older article, including this one.
  • If sports betting isn’t legal in your state yet, an offshore site or a VPN pointed at a state where it is legal isn’t a safe workaround — it can violate the operator’s own terms, and it removes whatever consumer protection the licensed, in-state framework would have given you. See our What a Gambling License Actually Guarantees for what that protection actually consists of.
  • Legal status and age requirements are two separate questions — see How Old Do You Have to Be to Bet on Sports? once you’ve confirmed your state actually allows it.

Is sports betting legal in Texas?

Not as of this writing. Despite being one of the largest states in the country, Texas has not passed a law legalizing online sports betting, despite repeated legislative attempts. Confirm current status before assuming otherwise.

Is sports betting legal in California?

Not as of this writing. California voters rejected both a tribal in-person model and an online model in a 2022 ballot measure. There is no legal, licensed way to bet on sports online in California right now.

Is sports betting legal in Florida?

Yes, but through a specific compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe rather than the open multi-operator model most other states use — Hard Rock Bet is effectively the exclusive mobile operator as a result.

Can I use a VPN to bet on sports if it's not legal in my state yet?

We wouldn't recommend it. Using a VPN to make it look like you're betting from a different state or country typically violates the platform's own terms of service, which can mean frozen funds or a closed account with no real recourse, on top of removing whatever protection the licensed framework in your actual location would have given you.