Online gambling in Oklahoma
Betting is big business in Oklahoma. In the frontier days of the old West, card games were a fact of life, as any movie lover can tell you. For much of the 20th century, the love affair with gambling went on hold. However, since the state legalized casinos and horse race betting in the 1980s, a renewed gambling sector has grown rapidly. Today there are more than 130 casinos operating in OK, including some of the biggest in the USA. Many of these venues are near the Texan border. That makes them a big draw for players from Dallas, barely an hour’s drive away.
However, internet gambling in Oklahoma is not keeping up with this gaming boom. State legislators have yet to introduce a regulatory framework that would allow casinos, poker games, and sportsbooks to operate online. For now, there are limited options for Oklahoma residents who want to bet away from the established brick-and-mortar casinos. Read on for more about the current situation, and the future prospects for online betting in OK.
Is online gambling legal in Oklahoma?
At present, online gambling is not legal in Oklahoma. The state has a wide range of land-based casinos, and they offer a full range of slots, table games, and card games. However, attempts to move the action online have yet to bear fruit. A 2013 bid to allow online poker games did not get approval from the state government.
How to sign up for an online gambling account in Oklahoma
Opening an account on any online sportsbook in Oklahoma is quick and easy. As soon as licensed, regulated internet gaming is available in Oklahoma, you can be up and running in minutes. Just follow these steps to get started.
Gambling sites that may launch in Oklahoma in the future
Since 2018, online sports betting has swept across the USA. Today, there are dozens of platforms out there waiting to take your wagers. Let’s look at some of the leading operators that might come to Oklahoma once sports betting is legal here.
FanDuel Oklahoma
As a pioneer of Daily Fantasy Sports games, FanDuel was well placed to move into sports betting after a 2018 Supreme Court ruling removed the federal prohibition on wagering on sporting events. Today, FanDuel operates online sportsbooks in several states, and its established audience of fantasy gamers has followed it into traditional sports betting and online casino play.
BetMGM Oklahoma
The MGM brand has its roots in Hollywood. Later, it diversified into some of the glitziest casinos in Vegas. Now, one of the biggest names in entertainment is available on your phone with its casino and sportsbook apps. That sportsbook boasts an extensive selection of markets on all the top events, with enough action to keep the most committed fan happy.
Caesars Oklahoma
This platform has one of the best loyalty programs around. Players get points for every bet, win or lose. Those points can be converted into cash, which customers can either withdraw or add to their bet roll for more play — and more points. The sportsbook itself is a good performer, with attractive bonuses and well-designed apps.
BetRivers Oklahoma
With a welcome bonus worth up to $500, BetRivers always grabs the attention of new players. That offer is legit and makes a good introduction to a rising star in the online betting world. BetRivers is often among the first operators to open in new markets, and an intuitive user experience on this sportsbook makes it one of the most popular.
Does Oklahoma allow gambling on Daily Fantasy sports?
Oklahoma does allow players to enjoy Daily Fantasy Sports games. However, this is not due to any explicit legal permission for DFS play. DFS operators argue that this is a game of skill, and therefore is not subject to gambling laws. In 2017, Oklahoma debated legislation that would authorize fantasy games. Although that proposal ultimately failed, it seems that the attorney general’s office has no appetite to prosecute players.
That is broadly in line with the position adopted throughout the USA. Daily Fantasy Sports grew out of the season-long fantasy games that became popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some operators realized that the same principles — where players have a budget to build a roster of real-life athletes, then earn points based on their performances over the season — could apply each weekend. With faster gameplay, DFS soared in popularity and was seen as a game of skill, not chance with its reliance on sports knowledge.
That crucial distinction enabled DFS to dodge prohibitions on sports betting. Ultimately, the rise of fantasy sports persuaded the Supreme Court that its ban on sports wagers was untenable, prompting a change of the law in 2018. Now, with a handful of exceptions, almost every state in the USA allows residents to play DFS games.
Today there are several operators in Oklahoma that run DFS games. These include FanDuel and DraftKings, two of the biggest players on the market.
Upcoming regulations and expected changes to the gambling laws in Oklahoma
At present, Oklahoma does not allow online gambling and sports betting. But how might that change in the future? Read on for more about possible new gambling regulations in OK.
The 2018 Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was a landmark for gambling in the USA. For the first time, there was no longer a federal ban on sports betting and individual states could make their own legislation. Since then, a growing number of states have embraced sports betting, both online and at retail venues.
This opens the door for big changes in Oklahoma. Potentially, the state legislature could give the green light to all forms of online gaming — casinos, sportsbooks, poker, and more. So far, though, this has not happened.
That might seem surprising in a state with a huge casino industry. Oklahoma has 137 tribal casinos. The state gains the second-highest gambling revenues in the USA. Clearly, there is no moral anguish about allowing people to enjoy a bet. Nor is there any reluctance to raise tax dollars at the casino.
However, a booming casino scene is also part of the reason that online betting is struggling to win approval. Those tribal casinos form a powerful lobby and, understandably, have concerns that online gambling might eat into their profits. That creates an obvious conflict of interest between tribal casinos and online gambling platforms. We have seen similar issues in California, where two proposals to legalize sports betting failed after an acrimonious referendum in November 2022.
Back in Oklahoma, a February 2022 proposal to allow casinos to offer retail sports betting also failed to progress. HB3008 was never intended to allow any form of online betting, but it might have opened the door for discussions of internet-based gambling in the future. Following its demise, bettors in the state will have to wait for the next legislative session to see if there will be any new movement toward legalizing online gambling and sports betting.
Who regulates online gambling in Oklahoma?
Gambling at Oklahoma betting apps is under the oversight of the Gaming Compliance Unit. This unit is directly responsible for collecting license fees from tribal casinos. It also monitors all the gambling venues in the state to ensure they comply with the law and provide a fair gaming experience for their customers. The Oklahoma Gaming Compliance Unit works in partnership with the federal agency tasked with enforcing the nationwide Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
Additionally, the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission regulates the three racetracks in the state. Off-track simulcast betting on horses is the only regulated form of online gambling available in Oklahoma. This also falls under the racing commission’s remit.
Online gambling laws in Oklahoma
At the time of writing, there are no laws that expressly allow online gambling in Oklahoma. This includes casinos, card rooms, and OK sports betting sites.
This puts online betting into something of a gray area. It is clear that no company can lawfully operate an online gambling platform of any type from within the state. However, it is less clear what this means for Oklahoma residents who wish to place bets via the internet. A significant number of offshore platforms exist and are happy to accept customers from OK, and any other U.S. state where there is no current provision for regulated gambling online.
However, it is difficult to recommend using offshore betting sites. First, these operators have no license to do business in the state of Oklahoma. That means their customers have little recourse to the law in the event of any complaint or problem. Second, there is a precedent for criminal cases against individuals caught placing wagers online. In 2012, a cop in Oklahoma City, Roland Benavides, pleaded guilty to one felony and one misdemeanor related to breaches of the state’s gambling laws. He received a five-year suspended sentence. The same investigation caught two other men, with one of them serving four years of jail time.
History of gambling in Oklahoma
For many years, Oklahoma did not allow any form of gambling. In 1916, the state imposed a complete ban on all gambling. That brought an end to the Wild West days of unregulated card games in every saloon. The ban remained in place until 1982 when legislation to permit betting on horses appeared. That became law the following year, making at least some wagers legal at the three racecourses in the state. In addition, it is also possible for horse lovers to place simulcast bets. This is the closest Oklahoma has to online gambling at present.
The next step was to allow tribal casinos. The Choctaw tribe was the first to open a high-stakes bingo hall on its lands in 1987. Subsequently, tribes got authorization to run Class III games at their casinos in 2004. This paved the way for traditional slot machines in the state. Surprisingly, it was not until 2018 that a change in the law allowed traditional roulette wheels and dice to be used at Oklahoma’s casinos. Previously, they had to use cards as a substitute for gaming wheels or dice games. Today, there are 137 tribal casinos offering a full range of slots, table games, and poker rooms. However, the only proposal to permit online gambling, a 2013 bid to allow tribes to offer online poker rooms, never made it into law.
Meanwhile, sports betting is still waiting for an invitation to the party. In 2017, Oklahoma saw draft legislation to permit Daily Fantasy Sports games. So far, though, it has yet to make it onto the statute books. Consequently, although DFS sites operate in OK, they have an uncertain legal status. Thus far, there has been no attempt to legalize sportsbooks in Oklahoma, whether online or bricks-and-mortar. Indeed, there have been successful prosecutions of individuals found to be betting online in breach of state laws.