Columbia Sportsbooks

As the second biggest metropolitan center in the state of South Carolina, Columbia is home to a population of nearly a million people in its combined statistical area. Experience shows us that many thousands – perhaps even hundreds of thousands – of those folks are interested in sports betting. Nevertheless, the state’s conservative politicians and even more conservative political base have not passed laws to allow Columbia sportsbooks to come into being, and the truth is that they are not likely to do so anytime soon either. This sad state of affairs for would-be sports bettors in the Palmetto State persists even in the wake of the watershed majority decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn the longstanding, but patently unconstitutional, Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) back in May of 2018.

Though positive ramifications of PASPA’s overturn were felt elsewhere in the United States, as all 50 individual state governments where thereby free for the first time in more than a quarter of a century to pass laws to legalize, regulate and tax sports betting, no such political will evidently exists in South Carolina at this time. However, lest you think that is “all she wrote” on the subject of sports betting for South Carolina residents, we have some good news: 100 percent legal offshore sports betting websites serving players in the United States do a ton of business in the Palmetto State, and you can use these industry leading operators to get in on the action without running into trouble with the law. Among the diverse field of entrants in the highly competitive segment of the broader online gambling world, we recommend that you give Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI and MyBookie a try, as these sites have already been serving as the de facto Columbia sportsbooks for going on two decades now, and in some cases for even longer.

Our comprehensive guide to the best sportsbooks in Columbia (or serving the Columbia region, more properly) would not be complete if we failed to mention the few – very few – in person gambling options that do exist in the Palmetto State. However, you should be aware that neither of these casinos, which are in fact casino cruises sailing from ports in South Carolina out into international waters where gambling actually takes place, actually offers a sports wagering product at this time. That is despite the fact that they actually could technically already be doing so given the environment in which they operate in order to host gambling for South Carolina players. Nevertheless, if laws were changed by the South Carolina legislature then these casino cruises could hastily become the best sportsbooks in Columbia, and in fact the only sports betting shops serving the state’s players that are not based strictly online.

Best South Carolina Sports Betting Sites - 100% Trusted + Safe

Is Sports Betting Currently Legal In Columbia?

As previously mentioned, sports betting is not currently legal in Columbia, nor is it legal to place wagers on sports anywhere else in the Palmetto State either. Lawmakers in the state have proposed SC sports betting bills that would amend the constitution to allow sports gambling, but none have garnered much action just yet. However, access to legal sports betting outlets is readily available for players across the state thanks to the presence on the market of legal offshore sportsbook sites, all of which are 100 percent licensed and regulated (that is to say legitimate) gaming businesses based in foreign countries. These sites and others like them have been legally serving United States-based players for decades between them all, and have established a reputation for being fair, reliable and utterly secure, not to mention safe from any kind of legal scrutiny. We would not steer you wrong in this regard, and these sites are far and away the best bets in this dynamic and exciting segment of the online gambling world.

Our most trusted legal offshore sportsbooks in Columbia combine the aforementioned security and reliability inherent in their being licensed and regulated businesses (albeit in Europe and the Caribbean, for what it is worth to you), but what really draws players in is their wide variety of betting lines and profitable betting odds that their competitors have a hard time matching. If you stick to any or all of these sites for your sports wagering needs then you have no need to be concerned about violating any state or federal laws, seeing as they are not subject to any of those in the first place. As you will come to see throughout the rest of this guide to the best sportsbooks in Columbia, SC, we are aiming to steer you in the direction of using these sites over any shady local bookies in the area because we definitely do not want you to catch a charge just for placing a bet or several on your favorite teams, leagues, players and sports.

Minimum Legal Betting Age At Columbia Sportsbooks

Even though there are no sportsbooks in Columbia, SC, we can still use a little bit of good old-fashioned common sense to figure out a pretty solid guess as to the minimum legal age to bet at Columbia sportsbooks if such as that ever become available in the Palmetto State. Our extensive research on this crucial matter has indicated to us several key issues to consider. First, there are only very few instances of states that have recently legalized sports betting in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s historic decision to overturn PASPA that have not settled on the typical “21 and up” rule, while on the other hand, there is no reason that South Carolina, a highly conservative state, would fail to err on the side of having the higher age standard.

However, while on this topic we should mention that it is possible to place wagers on sports at the age of 18, but only if you do so at legal offshore sports betting sites. There is nothing untoward about only requiring bettors to be 18 years of age and older to place wagers on sports, as these sites, being based in and regulated by foreign nations, are operating under a set of regulations that are a good deal more lax and permissive than those in the United States. However, we still do not recommend that any of our readers here at Sports betting South Carolina get in on the action of wagering on the teams and events of their choosing until they are at least 21. The potential risks are simply too great to put yourself under increased scrutiny by using even legal, reputable sites to place bets when you are underage according to the gambling laws of most states in the country.

Teams to bet on in Columbia

How to bet on the Clemson Tigers
How to bet on the Carolina Panthers
How to bet on the South Carolina Gamecocks
How to bet on The Citadel

Best Sportsbooks In Columbia

It really ought to be and probably is incredibly obvious to everyone reading our guide to the best sportsbooks in Columbia that all the sportsbooks serving South Carolina players are actually accessible solely via an internet connection and are all based in countries overseas. That means – in essence – that the top rated sportsbooks in Columbia are all about as local in real terms as the Palmetto State is to Latvia or the Caribbean, where our most highly rated sites (those being Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI, and MyBookie, of course) are actually located on computer servers. That being said, these five sites function just fine as the locals’ favorite sportsbooks in Columbia, SC, so you are not really giving up anything in terms of functionality or ease of use if you choose to make these your sports betting outlets of choice.

All that being said, we would not be doing our due diligence if we failed to mention the casino cruise ship that serves South Carolina bettors. The cruise line takes a trip out into international waters before gambling can begin, which is a double-edged sword in terms of effectiveness. In one regard, having to cruise into international waters takes time out of the five hours of the tour, which limits your time actually spent placing bets and playing games for real cash money, but on the other hand, the nature of traveling outside state and federal jurisdiction means that these operations are probably the best bet for the immediate future in terms of becoming legal Columbia sportsbooks.

However, the possibility does at least exist for a sea change vis a vis the state’s policy on sports betting in South Carolina, and – if that day should ever come – the Palmetto State’s only real casino is of the sea going variety as it is. The Big M Casino operates out of rivers near the South Carolina coastline and travels into international waters before allowing its passengers to actually place wagers. Though it does not seem perhaps as much fun as hitting a land based casino when examined from the surface level only, the cruise aspect of this water borne casino could theoretically provide a crucial advantage in the admittedly somewhat blasé fight to secure sportsbooks in Charleston. Because all the gambling aboard this ship happens in international waters, it could technically already be implementing sports betting operations and may yet do so.