SportsBettingInWestVirginia.com

West Virginia Sports Betting Handle Approaches $1 Billion

Daniel Borjas — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:43:00 +0000

West Virginia sportsbooks had a handle of $3.4 million in last week of March.
A $1 million decrease compared to previous weeks.
Locals want to have more accessible mobile sports betting.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The total amount of sports betting handle generated in West Virginia since sportsbooks opened up is approaching $1 billion.

Last Week Of March Sees A Dip

Not every single week is going to be a winner for sports betting in West Virginia. During the week that ended on March 30, it was reported by the West Virginia Lottery that $3.4 million was generated through sports betting.

Although that seems like an impressive number, that is an entire $1 million down from the previous week. There are a couple of factors that contributed to this. March Madness was continuing forward and there were fewer games being played. The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight did not see as much action as the opening week did in March.

NBA season was wrapping up as well. Teams were pretty much locked in already for the playoffs and that made people uninterested in betting on the games. There is also the fact that there is no mobile option available. The Mardi Gras Casino and Wheeling Island sportsbooks are still closed due to a contract dispute. This also caused their online sports betting app to shut down as well.

Upswing For The Future

Sportsbooks in West Virginia are hopeful that the spring and summer sports will help bring in more sports betting revenue. The Masters has just completed which means that golf season is in full swing. With Tiger Woods winning the Masters, sportsbooks are hoping that betting on golf will be more popular than ever.

The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs have also begun as well. There are plenty of hockey games to be played throughout the tournament so fans have plenty of opportunities to place their bets. The Stanley Cup isn’t the only tournament going on right either. The NBA playoffs are underway and there are plenty of bets expected to be made during this tournament.

With all of these different tournaments going on, West Virginia is expecting to make it to the $1 billion sports betting handle very soon. Bettors in the state are also hoping that a mobile betting app will be properly implemented as well. That would also highly increase the handle for sports betting in West Virginia.

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West Virginia To Offer Mobile Sports Wagering

Michael Molter — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 16:41:00 +0000

Bill H 2934, a mobile sport betting bill, was passed into law.
Governor Jim Justice let the bill pass into law automatically by letting it sit for 15 days without signing it or vetoing it.
The bill will allow for each of the state’s five casinos to apply for one of five mobile sports wagering licenses.

With more things in the United States shifting to the digital age each day it only makes sense for states with sports wagering to do the same. Mobile wagering in West Virginia has been passed into law.

Bill H 2934 allows for mobile sports betting in West Virginia. The bill did not go through the usual hoops to pass into law, however. Governor Jim Justice let bill H 2934 pass into law automatically by letting the bill sit without signing it or vetoing it for 15 days.

The bill will allow for the state’s five casinos: Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, The Casino Club at The Greenbrier, Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, and Mardi Grad Casino & Resort, and Wheeling Island Hotel to apply for one of five mobile sports wagering licenses.

West Virginia is the third state to offer mobile sports wagering. With a few other state’s that offer only land-based legal sports wagering, West Virginia is in the rare bunch that offers both. The state will surely benefit from online wagering. The state will take 15%, in taxes, of the online gambling revenue.

Mobile technology is adding new dimensions of entertainment in the world today. There are countless mobile phone games that can give users hours of fun and entertainment all from a screen that can sit in your hand. With mobile options sports betting in West Virginia is hopping on the mobile technology train. Thanks to Governor Jim Justice’s support the state will be able to offer sports betting on-the-go for avid mobile device users.

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NFL Proposes Rules For West Virginia Sports Betting Legislators

Daniel Borjas — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 16:39:00 +0000

CHARLESTON, W. Va. - A tear of sports gambling legalization efforts has ripped through the country in recent months. Along with the emergence of new legalized states comes the conflict between the professional sports leagues and the states themselves.

Sports gambling has the potential to generate millions of dollars in revenue for the state it’s in, but the sports they are built off of don’t receive any of that money. Now some professional leagues want a piece of that money to label it as an integrity fee.

The National Football League is no longer one of these sports leagues demanding this particular royalty. What they do want, however, is something far different.

The Mountain State has permanent sports gambling rules within their borders that impact their five sportsbooks. To counter, the NFL is proposing their own sports gambling rules to the West Virginia legislature.

The League is asking for:

Help in order to prevent NFL employees from betting in the state.
The NFL to have a say on the types of bets offered without the authority of a final say.
The cooperation of West Virginia and NFL officials if the NFL’s sports betting rules are broken.

The NFL, while not currently asking for any integrity fees like the leagues, still wants to have some sway with sports betting in West Virginia. If the leagues proposal is successful then they will have slight control over some aspects of sports gambling for the Mountain State, at least in regard to professional football.

The other leagues may be content on their integrity fee proposal, but the NFL seems content to have power and control over money.

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West Virginia Sports Betting Update

Sierra Kennedy — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 16:37:00 +0000

In March 2018, West Virginia became one of a handful of states that passed preemptive legislation that would legalize sports betting in the state. This piece of legislature, titled HB 415, became law on March 9th, officially becoming the West Virginia Sports Lottery Wagering Act.

This law, like the handful of others passed by states like New York and Delaware, included verbiage that kept it dormant until the Supreme Court made a decision regarding the federal law, PASPA. When SCOTUS overturned the legislature in May of 2018, West Virginia was given the green light to enact sports betting.

West Virginia sports betting will now be available at five locations within the state. These include the Greenbriar, Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack, Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, The Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, and the Mardi Gras Casino and Resort.

Before they can begin opening their sportsbooks, each gaming facility will have to pay $100,000 registration and licensing fee, and will conduct sports betting under the supervision of the West Virginia Lottery Commission. Currently, betting on football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, and auto racing will be available at these West Virginia sportsbooks. Along with professional lines, sports betting venues in West Virginia will also provide wagering opportunities on NCAA events as well.

In order to bet on sports in West Virginia, you must be 21 years of age or older. You will also have to be present at one of the five physical gaming venues in the state. Currently, there are talks of an online and mobile application that would extend from these gaming facilities. According to verbiage in the West Virginia Sports Lottery Wagering ACT, mobile betting within the state is permissible, although there has yet to be anything of that nature put into effect.

Until mobile apps are developed and put into use, you will have to physically be present at the racetracks and casino in order to place your bets. We all know how long it can take for Government and big businesses to get their acts together, so instead of waiting for state-based mobile apps that may never actually get developed, you can always place your bets at online, offshore sportsbooks for safe, easy, legal sports betting in West Virginia.

You may be wondering what the holdup is when it comes to sportsbooks opening in West Virginia. Part of the wait is just logistics – casinos waiting to get the appropriate gaming equipment and training their staff to offer a wide array of single-game wagering options takes time. Another part of the somewhat standstill in the state, though, comes from Governor himself. Despite allowing HB 415 to pass into law, he seems determined to send it back to the legislature in order to add a referendum that would give a cut of the casinos’ – and thus the state’s – profits away.

This urge stems from nation-wide calls and lobbying efforts made by the Commissioners of the MLB and NBA, who both supported legal sports betting. The caveat to that support is that they wanted to their leagues to be given compensation. League Commissioners are calling this an “integrity fee”, which would entitle them to 1% of a state’s sports betting profits.

While Justice is attempting to get his state to partner with the leagues in order to make the transition to legal sports betting in West Virginia smoother, experts agree that it isn’t likely for the Senate to vote for such an amendment.

Unfortunately, the more time spent on this small issue, the longer it takes for the casinos to open their sportsbooks. While sports betting in West Virginia does not have an official start date on the books yet, expect it to be sooner rather than later. Proponents of sports wagering in West Virginia are eager to start collecting on the projected multi-million dollar profits legal sportsbooks are projected to make.

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Potential Hurdles For Sports Betting In West Virginia

Dillon Appleman — Tue, 29 May 2018 16:36:00 +0000

Even though the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) has been overturned by the Supreme Court – and even though WV has its own sports betting laws already in place (HB 415) – there are still several potential hurdles for sports betting in West Virginia. With the WV Lottery running the show, Director Alan Larrick said that officials at his agency are working overtime to get rules, regulations, and procedures formalized for sports betting’s implementation at the state’s 5 casino gaming sites.

Of course, this all takes time, and there’s a lot more to do than simply plan out some logistics. Instead, there will have to be physical construction at all area casinos in the state (which has to go through the state lottery’s approval protocol), and there needs to be an online infrastructure set up to ensure that the WV government maximizes its revenue (which also must be determined). Additionally, there is the question of an integrity fee and the fact that the US congress could pass a law superseding anything that West Virginia implements.

The online aspect – which is the most critical aspect for mass adoption and the reversal of sports betting’s migration to overseas, Internet-based sportsbooks – is not necessarily a foregone conclusion, at least according to economics professor Brad Humphreys (WVU).

Humphreys claims that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) might prove a hindrance to online adoption, although this seems unlikely, as the language of that particular federal law specifies that the gambling it addresses must be illegal in nature. Since sports betting is no longer federally illegal, and since sports betting itself is legalized in the state, the West Virginia Lottery can probably set up and operate whatever mobile services it wishes. After all, Las Vegas casinos have had sports betting apps for years.

Another hurdle is the “integrity fee,” which is an asinine concept that doesn’t seem to be going away. Even though HB 415 makes no allowances for such a fee to be paid to anyone, WV governor Jim Justice has proudly boasted that he “talked the leagues down” from their initial demand of 1% of the betting handle (i.e. 20% of a sportsbook’s profits) to “only” 0.25% (or 5% of a sportsbook’s profits). There is plenty of indication that a legislative or executive meeting will be held in the near future to address this integrity fee, though there is no telling whether such a fee would have to be approved by congress or can simply be executively ordered.

The last issue of note for the effort to craft a legal sports betting in West Virginia is the fact that the Supreme Court’s PASPA ruling could ultimately lead the federal government to institute new sports wagering laws. This door was left open in the portion of the judgment (read by Samuel Alito) that says:

“The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make. Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each state is free to act on its own.”

Whether or not that comes to pass in the next few years remains to be seen, but one would hope that after the trillion-dollar PASPA boondoggle, the federal government and its representatives would defer to each state when it comes to handling their local economic interests.

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West Virginia Governor Jim Justice On Sports Betting In The State

Sierra Kennedy — Tue, 29 May 2018 16:34:00 +0000

Now that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA, 1992) has been overturned, West Virginia’s HB 415 – enacted without the governor’s signature on March 3, 2018 – has given the West Virginia Lottery the sole authority to oversee the implementation of the state’s sports betting industry. West Virginia governor Jim Justice had withheld comments on sports betting in the state while PASPA’s Supreme Court case was pending, but now the federal ban has been eliminated and his own state has passed laws on athletics wagering, he is finally chiming in. (His abstinence up till now can be explained by the fact that he owns The Greenbrier, one of the state’s five casino gambling locations which will likely receive operator licenses to offer sports betting in the near future.)

However, now that Justice is finally free to speak up, he seems to be taking on something of an antagonistic stance towards sports betting in West Virginia, even calling for a special session to remedy “flaws” in the current law (HB 415), whatever those flaws may be. Further, he has already decreed that “no part of an integrity fee for sports betting would be paid by the state. I demand…that the entire fee be paid by the casinos.” For those in the gambling industry stateside, the concept of a so-called “integrity fee” is an economic nonstarter, as it would siphon up to 20% of a given sportsbook’s profits right off the top should the major sports leagues – and governor Justice – have their way. Plus, HB 415 makes zero provisions for integrity fees of any kind.

Additionally, Justice has been loose-lipped about the beneficiaries of any economic surplus that arises from a successful state sports betting operation. Without any legislation or agreements in place, he has already stated that West Virginia’s largest colleges, WVU and Marshall, would be the first recipients of such profits. This, allegedly, because some charlatan named Tom McMillen of Lead1 (an athletic director’s association representing the two schools) has claimed – without any supporting data (because there is none) – that legal sports betting on NCAA games, as opposed to all the gray and black market betting that currently goes on, would cost the two colleges “hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Of course, none of this is truly surprising. The biggest risk with sports betting’s legalization across America is not whether the activity will lead to more match fixes or throw games; it is not whether wagering on sports will cause more poverty; it is not whether more folks will become addicted to gambling; it is not the potential for Las Vegas to lose a tiny bit of its luster. It is not any of that.

No, the biggest risk with sports betting’s legalization across America is simply that the various state (or federal) governments in charge of the activity will tax it to hell and then misallocate that money in a way that doesn’t actually help the community. Like giving WVU and Marshall a bunch of extra money for pretending to care about something that predates their own existence as if it were some newfound threat requiring immediate attention.

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Supreme Court PASPA Decision Legalizes Sports Betting In West Virginia

Sierra Kennedy — Tue, 29 May 2018 16:32:00 +0000

May 14, 2018, was a watershed moment in the annals of both American economics and constitutional law. On this date, the Supreme Court PASPA decision legalized sports betting in West Virginia (and the rest of the country, conditionally dependent on states passing their own sports wagering laws). Voting 6-3 in favor of eliminating the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 as an unconstitutional federal violation of the Tenth Amendment (states’ rights), the SCOTUS has opened the door to sports betting across America.

And that’s great, because US black market and gray market sports betting is estimated to be a $300 billion to $500 billion industry. It is estimated that West Virginia residents alone turn a handle of $3 billion to $5 billion each year, most of which goes through local unlicensed bookies or overseas to offshore sportsbooks.

However, West Virginia itself has passed an omnibus bill legalizing sports betting in the state, granting regulatory enforcement to the authority of the West Virginia Lottery. The law, Article 22D (HB 415), stipulates that WV can distribute 5 sports betting operator licenses to established gambling entities in the state. While these licenses haven’t yet been granted to any single operator, it is considered a foregone conclusion that the four operating racetracks/racinos and The Greenbrier luxury hotel and casino will be the recipients of said sports betting licenses.

However, since two of WV’s racetracks are owned by the same conglomerate, that leaves one license unaccounted for. Many industry analysts are surmising that the final license will be granted to the WV Lottery itself, who could then presumably offer sports betting kiosks all throughout the state where other lottery tickets are typically sold.

Whether or not this newfound sports betting in West Virginia will bring the Mountain State the billions of dollars in annual revenue and economic impact expected remains to be seen. However, even if the state can siphon off a healthy percentage of the underground action already in place via these new legal means, legal sports betting in WV will be an absolute economic windfall.

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