There are tons of Offshore Internet Sportsbooks out there that operate within a gray area.  They are technically not legal or recognized legitimate businesses in the United States, but since they are offshore there is not much that the United States government can do to prevent people from placing bets with these services.

The authorities never go after people who bet with offshore sportsbooks.  However, they sometimes do go after the people who run these businesses if they are Americans who return to the states.  For example, Jay Cohen, the founder and president of World Sports Exchange, one of the original offshore sportsbook was arrested and spent 17 months in a Las Vegas prison after he returned to the United States from Costa Rica.  Sometimes professional sports teams go after players for gambling illegally.  Jamoir Jagr a hockey player with the Washington Capitals was penalized after he was caught placing bets with a Sportsbook in Belize.

These Offshore Sportsbooks make millions of dollars every year taking bets from people across the nation and there is not much that the government can do about it.  It would be rather safe to rip them off without any legal ramifications since they are outside the United States and operate in such an unrecognized manner.

So how can you place bets for football, baseball, basketball, horse racing or any other sport, without the risk of losing money if the team loses?  Here’s how.

Find an Offshore Internet Sportsbook that accepts Western Union and then find a 24 hour Western Union near your location.

Find a reasonably decent game to bet on that is later that same evening between the window of 5:00 pm and 11:00 pm.

Withdraw money from your bank account , preferably the max that the sport book allows on the first bet which is usually $1,000-$5,000.

Most internet sportbooks are offshore and usually in the EST time zone which is three hours ahead of the PST time zone in California.  So if regular Western Union locations close at 5:00 pm, the location on the West Coast will be open 3 hours later than the location on the East Coast, however some locations are open 24 hours.

What you do is open an account (use fake name incase you do this more than once), call the toll free number of the sportsbook.  They will ask you to fund your account. You do this by credit card or you use a Western Union Money Transfer. Tell them or email them that you want to use Western Union. You will get the instructions for the transfer, then you call or go on the Western Union site to find out what time the Western Union near the Sportsbook closes location, ex. 9:00p.m.

Next you pick a game that is playing “AFTER” their Western Union is closed (horse races sometimes work well). You send the money transfer to them right before their Western Union closes, ex. 8:55p.m. Then you call the Sportsbook and notify them that you sent the transfer and give them the control number.  They will track the number and see that you did send money, so they “will” let you place your bet.

Now if your team wins, the next day, you inform the SportBook that you would like your winnings along with your original bet. They will send it to you because they do want you to continue to play with them in the future.

If your team loses, just notify Western Union that you want to cancel your transfer, a small fee will be incurred, go to the 24 hr Western Union in your area to pick your money up. Now since the Western Union at the sportbook location is closed, they can’t pick up the money.  When they do go to pick it up, they will see that you cancelled the transfer, just disregard any emails or just deny that you cancelled.  Just go find another internet sportbook or reuse the same place after a month or so under another name.