Wagering on esports: which states let you bet on a video game, and on what terms
Whether a state’s sports wagering statute reaches competitive video gaming, jurisdiction by jurisdiction: which definitions name e-sports, which reach it through a residual phrase and a regulator’s approval, what an operator must tell the regulator before opening a new book, who is old enough to bet, what is barred at the collegiate level, and the separate question of betting with the items inside the game.
Wagering on esports: which states let you bet on a video game, and on what terms
Each entry below was checked against its official source; the date is on the entry. Entries that could not be checked are not shown.
- Published entries
- 18
- Latest source check
- 2026-10-12
- States and territories covered
- 11
- Entries held back
- 8
- Permitted or licensed1
- Restricted or conditioned5
- Prohibited0
- Pending change0
- Position recorded5
- No published position45
Text version of the map
| State or territory | Status | Source check |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Restricted or conditioned | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| Colorado | Permitted or licensed | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| District of Columbia | Restricted or conditioned | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| Louisiana | Restricted or conditioned | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| Nevada | Position recorded | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| New Jersey | Position recorded | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| Ohio | Restricted or conditioned | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| Pennsylvania | Position recorded | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| Vermont | Position recorded | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| Washington | Position recorded | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
| West Virginia | Restricted or conditioned | Verified at source on 2026-10-12 |
Select a state on the map, or choose one above, to read its position and its sources.
Federal, tribal and other bodies
- Federal Three statutes of general application and not one word about a video game between them. The wire statute of September 13, 1961 reaches a bet on a sporting event or contest and defines neither term; the Indian gaming statute of October 17, 1988 and the internet gambling payments statute of October 13, 2006 leave every underlying prohibition where they found it. Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Latest changes
The District names an esports event in its definition of a sporting event and then puts an age test on the field, so a video game competition that is not professional, collegiate or Olympic drops out where most of the players are under eighteen.
D.C. Law Library (Council of the District of Columbia), D.C. Code § 36-601.01 · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
New Jersey’s gaming regulator publishes a list of approved leagues and events, and it carries an eSports section naming titles, leagues and tournament organisers.
New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, Approved Leagues/Events for Sports Wagering (Last Updated: December 3, 2025) · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Louisiana puts a competitive video game on the same line as an Olympic event inside its definition of a sports event, with no governing body, no sanction and no approval needed first.
Louisiana State Legislature, Louisiana Revised Statutes § 27:602 · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Vermont’s regulator lists E-Sports in its catalogue of approved events, league by league.
Catalog of Approved Events for Sports Wagering (Mar. 4, 2024), Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Ohio defines an esports event by who regulates it and who plays in it, and by doing so makes a video game competition bettable only where somebody governs the game.
R.C. 3775.01, Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Ohio shuts school competition out of the betting catalogue outright and lets an event with players under eighteen in only where the commission says so, which is the provision a video game competition runs into first.
R.C. 3775.01, Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Ohio gives its sports gaming chapter a definitions section a year and a half before the amendment that produced the text this page reads.
R.C. 3775.01, Ohio Laws and Administrative Rules · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
New Jersey rewrote its esports bar in 2021: electronic sports and competitive video games are prohibited sports events only where a high school sponsors them or most of the competitors are under 18.
New Jersey Legislature, P.L.2021, c.286 (corrected copy of corrected copy) · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
The enrolled bill behind Nevada’s Esports Technical Advisory Committee sets its own effective date in its last section, which is the day the codified section withholds behind a page number of the Statutes of Nevada.
Nevada Legislature, Senate Bill No. 165 (81st Session, 2021), enrolled · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Arizona’s event wagering act defines an e-sport in one paragraph and drops an e-sport event into the definition of a sports event in another, and it was approved and filed with the Secretary of State on the same April day.
Arizona State Legislature, Laws 2021, ch. 234 (H.B. 2772) · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Colorado bars the wager on a video game and hands the key to a sports governing body in the same sentence: an unsanctioned game is a prohibited sports event, and a game sanctioned as an electronic competition is not.
Colorado General Assembly, Colorado Revised Statutes 2023, Title 44, Article 30, Part 15 · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
New Jersey’s 2018 act reached the question and answered no, writing electronic sports and competitive video games into the events on which its licensed sports pools were barred from taking a wager; P.L.2021, c.286 narrowed that bar three years later.
New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, Sports Wagering Law, P.L.2018, c.33 (corrected copy) · Verified at source on 2026-10-12
Changes here bear on esports-wagering opinions: Authorised events, Licensing.
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