- I never once said you broke the law.

- Are you a bookie? Do you charge a vig? If so, you are breaking the law.

- Vegas and Nevada and 3 or 4 new states have legal sports betting.

- '40 years it was more illegal'. Yeah the law doesn't work like that.

- the mob is heavily involved in bookmaking. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3b5m7b/ontarios-hells-angels-have-a-hard-on-for-sports-gambling

- That poker game you play at your buddy's house on the weekend? That's 100% legal as long as your buddy doesn't rake the pot. If he rakes the pot, he is profiting from the act of gambling which is illegal.

A loophole used in Texas at the moment is to charge a membership in leiu of raking the pot. This is arguably illegal, but the police don't bother enforcing this.

- As far as a source to the law? Google can I rake a poker game legally in the US.

In many (but not all) jurisdictions, an unlicensed poker game may nevertheless be legal so long as the game is played in a dwelling house, the host is not profiting from hosting the game and/or the entry fees do not exceed a certain threshold.

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source: I work for SportCrypt which is a bookie and I break the law as does Bovada. SportCrypt will likely never be able to operate legally in the USA. I'm not particularly concerned as the crime of bookmaking is a minor offence and very few people get prosecuted for such crime these days.