Guide to the Kentucky Gambling Age: Casinos, Sports Betting & More

The gambling situation in the state of Kentucky is not the most favorable, as you can see from the table below the current status in law of several key gambling sub-types are completely illegal. Casinos and sports betting are not sanctioned by Kentucky law, there are no brick and mortar casinos in this jurisdiction, similarly the state does not allow its citizens to take part in any form of online alternatives. The tough stance against classical gambling does make some small consolatory allowances – residents in this state will be able to engage in bingo, lottery and horse racing bets where the Kentucky gambling age for these three activities is set at 18 years old.

The table above gives an excellent overview of just how harsh the gambling age Kentucky restrictions truly are. Not only is the online casino format completely prohibited, but in-person gambling at brick and mortar casinos is not possible anywhere across the state. Moreover, poker and sports betting are also outside the remit of the law, together these three pillars represent the lion’s share of the majority of gambling interest of average punters. Whilst there is pleasure in buying a lottery ticket, playing bingo and watching horse races, these are only edge-cases for the real context of gambling, and the majority of punters would never think to play bingo or lottery as a focused form of gambling.

Legal Gambling Age in Kentucky for Casino

Casino gambling is one of the most popular forms of gambling around the world. Whilst sportsbook betting, lottery ticket fluttering and bingo participating all hold their own merit as enjoyable activities in this domain of entertainment, casinos are the bread-and-butter of gambling. Around the world millions of people enter casinos each year and the global market capitalization of these establishments is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Given its precarious legal footing in Kentucky, you won’t actually be able to enter a casino in this state, as the Kentucky gambling age law prohibits their existence and reaffirms the state’s ultra-conservative approach to the gambling industry.

Casino gambling does not require the customer to be present in the casino to engage in the products on offer though. In the age of ultra-fast broadband and web-application technologies – online casinos are widely available across the internet. Live casinos are a particularly popular form of these gambling operations, this allows the customer to have a truly immersive experience as they watch a dealer through live video stream and can make bets in the exact same fashion as if they were sitting at the table. Offshore casinos such as these are available throughout the United States, and whilst the Kentucky gambling age law does not explicitly permit their existence within state, there is very little in Kentucky gambling age law to stop a resident logging on to their computer and accessing on of these platforms hosted offshore.

Which Casinos In KY Accept 18 Year-olds?

There are no 18 year old casinos in Kentucky because the prohibition of casinos has eradicated their existence from this state. Throughout the United States there are many wonderful places that offer luxury gambling entertainment, and great places such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City are true casino hubs with a global appeal. The Kentucky gambling age law has resisted this sentiment, and has actively distanced itself from those who would seek to launch progressive gambling reforms within its local municipalities. Whilst the brick and mortar casino industry is completely non-existent, there is a growing and thriving offshore online gambling age allowance – and residents of Kentucky are frequently accessing these platforms from the comfort of their own homes.

Sports Betting In Kentucky

Unfortunately for sports betting fans the legal gambling age in Kentucky towards bookmakers is very restrictive. There is no allowance made for sportsbook gambling and the practice is completely outside the law. It is a great shame that Kentucky has decided to adopt this harsh stance towards gambling on sports as the state has two very large sports franchise outfits in the Kentucky Wildcats and the Louisville Cardinals. The outlawing of sports gambling by the state legislature does very little to change the behavior of Kentucky residents, and the practical implications of banning this activity is the thriving online and offshore sports betting platforms used by punters across the United States.

Kentucky Online Gambling Age

There is a wide-variety of approaches to gambling law in the United States because states are able to individually determine their own sets of laws. The general rate for casino age in Kentucky and that of sportsbooks set their age limit at is 21 years old, but in many other lower forms of gambling you can participate from the age of 18. Some prime examples of this disparity exist within the Kentucky gambling age law which allows residents to engage in lottery, bingo and horse racing gambling from the age of 18. But the online gambling age for customers is irrelevant in the eyes of Kentucky state law, as there is no allowance made for any form of online gambling regardless of age.

The majority of states in the United States do not have a legalized form of online gambling. In fact, there is very little with regards to gambling legislation moving towards a more progressive path that would allow online gambling to flourish within the state. Online gaming remains at logger-heads with the general consensus in Kentucky lawmaking. With the state being a typically conservative and of an anti-gambling disposition progress into a normality of legalized online gambling has been incredibly difficult to achieve. With that being said, offshore gambling platforms that are widely available throughout the country all Kentucky residents to easily circumvent these restrictions, and gamble freely online.

Poker Gambling Age

The world of professional poker is incredibly hierarchical, and at times can feel like a Shakespearean melodrama, in the sense that the good guys always seem to blow away the bad. Anyone who has played a decent amount of cards will understand that poker is a game of skill, subtlety and requires a certain ability to deal with probabilities that creates a considerable skill-gap between the pros and amateur players. Unfortunately, many lawmakers who have never played the game deem it to be just another form of gambling, and so they lump it into the same junket of legal treatment as casinos, slot machines and sports betting. As for the legal gambling age in Kentucky for poker, there is none because it is illegal, if you can gain access to offshore providers then your age will be verified at 18 years old or older before you can begin.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Another nail in the coffin of sports betting for Kentucky punters is the prohibition of daily fantasy sports. With sports betting and daily fantasy sports both banned and not officially endorsed by the local state authorities it leaves only the pari-mutuel horse racing as the sole sports gambling source of entertainment in Kentucky. With the two largest providers of daily fantasy sports being FanDuel and DraftKings both operating on a nationwide and international scale, there is of course methods that can be undertaken to access these platforms. Just be sure to pay attention to your OPSEC and don’t compromise any of your personal information by using insecure offshore gambling companies that are unlicensed and unregulated.

Legal Age to Play the Lottery in Kentucky

The legal gambling age in Kentucky for lottery gaming is the same as the national level that is consistent across the whole country. This age has been set at 18 years old for every variety of lottery gambling, whether you’re interested in playing scratch card games, draw games or locally run draw games, you will be able to play them all from the age of 18. The Kentucky lottery provides an enormous economic resource for the local state budget, and we fully expect the state of Kentucky to try and scale up the output and implementation of lottery ticket sales either through online ticket purchasing or more draw dates throughout the weekly draw schedule.

Kentucky Gambling Laws & Future Outlook

The state of Kentucky is certainly one of the most un-welcoming states throughout the country when it comes to free-market gambling operations. The industry is tightly controlled in this region and the majority of gambling pastimes are completely banned. The state defines gambling as a social-menace and has various political positions that highlight the damaging impact of gambling addiction when it is allowed to run rife. With this they are not wrong, but the practical implications of banning gambling throughout Kentucky is the rise of an unlicensed and unregulated offshore gaming industry that targets the markets of states where gambling laws do not allow legal alternatives.

In terms of the legal gambling age in Kentucky regulated industries such as pari-mutuel horse racing and lottery gambling, there is a considerable amount of revenue flowing through the balance sheet. The signs are that the growing demand for increased freedoms to gamble would take this small sector and transform it into a multi-billion dollar market, with widespread support from the private and public sector to bring about meaningful change within the Kentucky sports betting industry. Once the legal situation improves, there will no doubt be considerable innovation and implementation in the Kentucky gaming sector to expand the reach and scale of their existing online infrastructure gambling projects.

The future outlook for gambling in Kentucky is not one of the most positive we have reported on in this series. There are several pitfalls that the state lawmakers and advocates for progressive gambling legislation will have to contend with, namely the deeply entrenched resistance to advancing the status of casino legalization and allowing an infrastructure of online gambling to exists and flourish. Whilst it may seem like the state of Kentucky is still a million miles away from achieving this ambitious long-term vision, the signs are beginning to show that the people are ready for this shift in policy. Head back to our homepage to learn more about the legal gambling age around the United States and discover the best strategies for gambling in each state.

Frequently Asked Questions

Throughout this review we have touched on the specific legal restrictions of each gambling sub-type in the state of Kentucky. Whilst there are many complexities and subtleties to gambling law, we hope we have offered a clear and concise explanation of the current legal framework. See below our most frequently asked questions with accompanying answers provided.