Little Rock Online Sports Betting Guide 2020

This is our sad overview of Little Rock (AR) online sports betting options. Check the gambling sites, legal sportsbooks, mobile apps available to the locals. Read about Arkansas casinos, gambling locations in 2019/2020. Learn about best 10 Providence city casino and sports betting destinations here. 

Where can you bet online in Little Rock, Arkansas?

You can place bets online at BetAmerica, only on horse racing events (wagering and contests allowed). 

Little Rock sports betting legislation

Arkansas (and its biggest city Little Rock) and gambling is really a tale of what could have been. In Hot Springs, everything was really in place for it to rival Las Vegas or Atlantic City as a really world-class US gambling hub. But things moved in the opposite direction in the state, and legislation banned almost all forms of gambling for residents. Nowadays, there are two main casino complexes and a scattering of bingo halls.

As far as sports betting goes it’s only legal at the tracks, where bets are the familiar pari-mutuel system, which pool winnings, and are for greyhound and horse racing only.

The key laws which govern gambling in Arkansas center on the 1967 law. The main statutes which cover gambling make a clear distinction between individuals who are gambling and those who are running gambling houses or organizing these events. The core offense here involves the actual betting, which includes both ‘hazard or skill’:

“If a person bets any money or any valuable thing on any game of hazard or skill, upon conviction he or she is guilty of a violation and shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than twenty-five dollars ($25.00). (From: 5-66-113)”

Little Rock Sports Betting Legislation:

1967: The current laws are enacted and gambling in Hot Springs is finally closed down, although the town’s heyday had already gone.

2005: Legislation dictating a ‘Games of Skill’ expanded gaming opportunities at the major racetracks, which now have hundreds of machines in each. Act 1151 of 2005 put into place a regulation framework which covered skill-based electronic games, which led to the racetracks coming up with innovative hybrids of live dealer and electronic screens.

2007: Exemptions for charitable gambling games came in, under the ‘Charitable Bingo and Raffles Enabling Act (2007 number 338). There are both strict licensing rules as well as strict definitions in Arkansas for games such as these.

Will Little Rock legalize sports betting?

2019 saw a possible breakthrough in sports gambling in Arkansas and there have been advances in legislation. But gamblers will have to wait and see online sportsbooks and mobile apps, maybe in 2020?