Sports betting has come a long way, and even longer if you’ve never seen the usual places that people went to place a wager before the turn of the century.

Most of us probably know sports betting only as a friendly bet, something more or less small between friends and co-workers. Nothing to get rich over (or to get your legs broken over either)!

A smaller number of us know the more ‘institutional’ sports betting destinations — the legal ones, such as OTB and Las Vegas sports books, as well as the illegal ones (I can find a bookie in any major city in about three hours).

The illegal ones have their own special drawbacks. Apart from grevious bodily injury mentioned earlier, you run all sorts of risks in going to one. For one thing, they don’t really need to pay you if you win (’cause whatta ya gonna do, call the cops?), but pretty much anything can happen to you if you don’t pay when you lose (’cause whatta ya gonna do, call the cops?). Also, they’re rarely in the safest and most convenient parts of town…

But even the legal ones have some problems. The lines aren’t always as fair as they could be, and you rarely get a real variety of wagers. If it’s local, you still have to commute…and if it isn’t local, you pretty much have to take a vacation to make a bet (you know, spend money to spend more money to probably lose money. Sounds like fun…).

Luckily, online sports books have pretty much wrapped this up. Convenience? How about the convenience of placing a bet from your home computer…or your laptop from almost anywhere…or even your cell phone, for REALLY anywhere?

Lines are fair, because they have to be — with this much competition, the online sportsbooks have to stay as fair as possible without losing money. They’re usually teamed up with an online casino USA, so you don’t even need to go anywhere else to play online slots and other casino games. Plus, they don’t have to spend their profits on all sorts of ‘brick-and-mortar’ necessities, so more of the profit can go back to make even better conditions for the customer!