Traveling To (Or Through) a State With Online Sports Betting? Here’s What You Need to Know

While online sports betting may not be legal in your state, it’s coming to more and more every month. If you are traveling, you may find yourself in one of these sacred lands.

And great news: you can bet in these legal states even if you’re not a permanent resident. You just need to be physically located inside state lines.

So if you’re traveling to or through one of these legal states, you can bet and withdraw money with ease. Most importantly, you can withdraw your money even if you’ve already left the state.

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions, including which states have full online betting, sign-up requirements and more.

1. You can sign up and bet, even if you don’t live in that state full time

The requirements for legal betting:

• Be 21 years old
• Be physically inside a state with legal betting

That’s most of it. So you’re allowed to bet in Arizona, even if you live in California, as long as you’re inside Arizona at the time you place the bets. If you’re not in Arizona, your phone or computer’s location services will know, and it won’t allow you to place the bet.

Just be sure to use your real address and other information, not the address of someone the family you’re visiting or your AirBNB’s address.

Sportsbooks won’t be able to verify your identity, and it will be a whole mess that you’ll need to get sorted out by customer service. Over Thanksgiving or on any weekend, there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to fix it. The steps often involved submitting a photo of your license, and a selfie with your license also in it.

2. You can sign up and bet online in some states; others, you have to register (and bet) in person

Legal betting states fall into four buckets:

1. Register online, bet online
2. Register online, bet online (limited sportsbooks)
3. Register in person, bet online
4. Register in person, bet in person

Option 1 — registering and betting online — unlocks a world of possibilities. You can get access to multiple sportsbooks in seconds, making line shopping a breeze. You’ll also get access to hundreds of props and other markets you can’t get anywhere else. Even if you’re driving through Indiana let’s say for 30 minutes, you can sign up and fire in some bets in the car.

Option 2 — register online, bet online at 1-2 sportsbooks — doesn’t give you all the choices you would have in a competitive market, but it’s not a bad option for the holidays.

Options 3 and 4 — having to register and/or bet online — are frustrating during the holidays especially because you won’t have time to get to the casino.

3. You can withdraw money even if you’ve already left the state

Say you’re in Louisiana on Thursday and bet a few Sunday NFL games, but leave the state to go home to Texas on Friday.

You’re in luck. Your money won’t be tied up until you return home. You can cash it out while you’re at home.

The only thing you can’t do at a sportsbook like DraftKings if you’re not in a legal state is actually bet. You can register, look around at odds, deposit and withdraw.

4. Should I put my real address?

Yes. There’s nothing illegal about betting in a legal state if you’re not from there. You just need to be within state borders.

If you try to use a “fake” address, or the address of the people you’re visiting, you’ll run into issues verifying your identity, and likely won’t be able to deposit and bet. And over a holiday, there’s no guarantee customer service will be able to help you in time.

5. How do they know I’m in a legal state?

Sportsbooks use geo-location to ensure you’re in a legal betting state. If you’re using an iPhone, it should be pretty seamless given iOS’s built-in location services.

If you’re using a computer, you may have some issues with Geo Comply, which you can troubleshoot here.

Sportsbooks are extremely vigilant about users trying to circumvent these location-based restrictions, so taking over someone’s computer, using a VPN and any other workarounds won’t work.

6. Which books are legal where?

Check out our legal betting hub to find your state and see what’s available. DraftKings has the largest footprint in the U.S., while FanDuel isn’t far behind. Those should be good places to start if you’re in a state with online betting.

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