In the Uk and Ireland we take the betting shop as part of everyday Life
But say I come to N.America is there a betting shop in your area? or what arrangements do you have to place a bet if there is a big race or fight or Golf tournament?
Betting shops where legalised in the UK only at the beginning of the 1960's before that they had bookies "runners" who risked prosecution by taking bets on street corners (and you'd have to trust them to pay up if you had a winner )
only recently has technology made betting secure as in you know what price you betted on and the bookies are obliged to pay out on it (Old manual methods was wide open to fraud )...Though in the long run the Bookies are the winners

Yes there's a betting shop in every main street , even in large villages. So do you have places to bet in main streets across the US ?

Bedstor: how did the old way lead to fraud? There was always a betting slip, the receipt, showing the odds taken and bet made.

Of course, the punters (clients) often thought they were defrauded when paid but that was because most of them were incapable of the maths involved in settling bets like yankees and other combinations, even doubles, when there were odds at 13/2, 11/8, 6/4, '6/4 on' (which is, of course, 4/6 ) and so forth. The fraud problem was mostly, as it was on the racecourse, that the bookmaker would welsh (disappear when due to pay out too much). In practice the runners, and the bookies, relied on being trusted locally in the town. Everybody knew who they were and that's how they established a clientele.

The reason for street betting being illegal was to protect ordinary people from gambling debts. The better off simply opened credit accounts. One reason why racecourses had much greater attendances years ago was that cash betting there was , naturally, legal. The half day off work enjoyed by shopworkers and Saturdays were marked by enormous crowds at bigger meetings.The Derby was held in midweek and attracted far more people than it did post the late 60s.It's now held on a Saturday.

The internet, though, has made betting fraud more obvious in the case of jockeys cheating as accomplices to gamblers.On the internet it is possible for anyone,even a part time recreational gambler, to back a horse to lose a race.The ease of this makes it attractive to part time crooks too The result has been a few ludicrously inept attempts at fixing; one jockey is accused of jumping off his horse whilst going over a fence, another of dropping his hands and waiting for others to overtake when right in front of the grandstand; but it remains a possible problem for the racing industry.

Naturally, jockeys are regularly sent out on animals that do not run to their best form but that's normal ( and expected by owners and trainers )

Fred
I always remember my Dad complaining about them Said they were the lowest form of Life equal to Loan Sharks and the Social Security (separate issues)
Amazing they all survived into the 21st Century and they now have Respectable "fronts"
The Loan shark became a Consolidated Loan Broker . The Social Security became Department of Work and Pensions
and of course the Bookies runner is now the Local Branch of William Hill .Ladbrokes or whatever
All huge organisations turnover Hourly (Note! )beyond what most of us earn in a lifetime working

Gambling laws are state laws, so what is and isn't legal varies from state to state. This page has a summary, but there are details not shown there.

For example, NY has OTB (off-track betting) locations, which allow legal betting on horse races. Part of the profits go to the racing industry and part go to local governments. Betting on races is also legal at the tracks.

It's big business betting in these places. Horseracing accounts for over £5 billion ($9 billion ) a year in off course betting (i.e. not on the racecourse itself) in the UK, nearly all of it in betting shops. That is 80% of the business there so the total taken is over £6 billion ($11 billion ) a year.It is all sports betting (if you include bets on elections , the Eurovision Song Contest and the reality show Big Brother in 'sports' )

Note :This is in a country of only about 60 million people. The typical customer only wagers quite small sums but does so regularly and quite often.The fear that these shops would lead to great distress through gambling have proved as ill- founded as the belief that pubs increase alcoholism.

No betting shops here in Ohio. You can buy state lottery tickets almost anywhere and if you wish to bet on the horses, you go to the racetrack.

Been in Virginia for a couple of weeks now, and no sign of bookie offices. We've got a lot of Lottery outlets here, but that's it. Back home, if we wanted to bet on a sporting event or a block of them during a given weekend, we'd just go to a bar and fill out out a slip that says "For Amusement Purposes Only" (Yeah, surrrrre...).

Me, the only time I've gambled lately is whenever I eat at a new Mexican restaurant.