What this is
Every other site in this niche leads with the sportsbook. We lead with the statute. We don't take deposits. We don't run odds. We don't have a betting app to sell you.
What we have is the actual law text, the bill number, the date it took effect, and a plain-English summary of what it means. The same statutes your sportsbook hopes you don't read.
CiteBet is part of the State Law Guide network — 18 statute-first references across the topics that get the most legal misinformation online.
The four legal categories
Every U.S. state falls into one of four buckets under current federal and state law. We use the same categories in every table, every state page, every summary.
All 50 states
Sorted by legal status. Each row links to the state page with the full statute text, the bill number, the effective date, and the penalty schedule. 11 states marked coming soon will be added through 2026.
| State | Status | Effective | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Legal | 2021 | HB 2772 |
| Arkansas | Limited | 2019 | Amendment 100 |
| Colorado | Legal | 2020 | HB 19-1327 |
| Connecticut | Legal | 2021 | HB 6451 |
| Delaware | Legal | 2018 | HB 365 (2018 amend.) |
| District of Columbia | Legal | 2019 | D.C. Act 22-594 |
| Florida | Limited | 2021 | HB 1059 (tribal compact) |
| Montana | Limited | 2019 | SB 330 |
| Nebraska | Limited | 2021 | Initiative 430 |
| Nevada | Legal | 1949 | NRS 463 |
| New Hampshire | Legal | 2019 | HB 480 |
| New Jersey | Legal | 2018 | AB 4111 |
| New Mexico | Limited | 2018 | Tribal compacts |
| New York | Legal | 2019 | SB 50002 (online 2022) |
| North Carolina | Legal | 2024 | HB 347 |
| North Dakota | Limited | 2021 | HB 1253 |
| Ohio | Legal | 2022 | HB 29 |
| Oklahoma | Limited | 2020 | Tribal compacts |
| Oregon | Legal | 2019 | SB 247 |
| Pennsylvania | Legal | 2017 | HB 247 |
| Rhode Island | Legal | 2018 | SB 2045 |
| South Dakota | Limited | 2020 | HB 1232 (Deadwood) |
| Tennessee | Legal | 2019 | SB 16 |
| Vermont | Legal | 2023 | S.59 |
| Virginia | Legal | 2020 | SB 384 |
| Washington | Limited | 2020 | HB 2638 (tribal) |
| West Virginia | Legal | 2018 | HB 4394 |
| Wisconsin | Limited | 2021 | Tribal compacts |
| Wyoming | Legal | 2021 | HB 133 |
| Alabama | Prohibited | — | Ala. Code §13A-12-1 et seq. |
| Alaska | Prohibited | — | No statute; no licensed sportsbooks |
| California | Prohibited | — | Prop 26 & 27 failed 2022 |
| Georgia | Pending | — | SB 579 (active 2026) |
| Hawaii | Prohibited | — | HRS §712-1230 |
| Idaho | Prohibited | — | Idaho Code §18-3801 |
| South Carolina | Prohibited | — | SC Code §16-19-40 |
| Texas | Prohibited | — | Tex. Penal Code §47.02 |
| Utah | Prohibited | — | Utah Code §76-10-1101 |
| Illinois | Legal | 2019 | SB 690 · coming soon |
| Indiana | Legal | 2019 | SEA 552 · coming soon |
| Iowa | Legal | 2019 | SF 617 · coming soon |
| Kansas | Legal | 2022 | HB 2002 · coming soon |
| Kentucky | Legal | 2023 | HB 551 · coming soon |
| Louisiana | Limited | 2021 | SB 247 · coming soon |
| Maine | Legal | 2022 | LD 585 · coming soon |
| Maryland | Legal | 2021 | HB 940 · coming soon |
| Massachusetts | Legal | 2022 | HB 5164 · coming soon |
| Michigan | Legal | 2019 | HB 4916 · coming soon |
| Minnesota | Pending | — | HF 2000 · coming soon |
| Mississippi | Limited | 2018 | MSC §75-76-201 · coming soon |
| Missouri | Pending | — | Amendment 2 · coming soon |
Counts as of 2026-06-01. Verify with the state page before relying on the status for any specific transaction.
Why statute-first
The major sports-betting affiliate sites lead with: "is it legal yes/no — here's a sportsbook." That order buries the only fact that matters. The statute is the product. The sportsbook is a downstream consequence.
If you live in California, Texas, or Utah, "is it legal" is a felony question, not a UX question. If you live in New York, it's a tax question — the state takes 51% of online sportsbook revenue. If you live on tribal land in Washington, the question is which compact applies. The same "legal yes/no" answer hides all of that.
CiteBet inverts the order. Statute first, then status, then context, then (if you want one) a sportsbook.