Legislation
US – West Virginia lottery sets up emergency rules for sports betting roll-out
By Phil - 16 July 2018
With sports betting already approved in the state, the West Virginia Lottery Sports Wagering Act will now allow the Lottery Commission to set up emergency rules that will allow the roll-out of sports betting.
Casino operators can now apply to the lottery for the immediate launch of sports pool or online sports pool operations for an annual license costing $100,000. The new rules mean casinos can partner with third-party vendors to develop sports betting lounges and to develop sports-betting apps. Online and mobile bets will only be accepted from players physically located inside the borders of West Virginia. Casinos will have to set up an ‘integrity monitoring system’ which will send reports from sports pool operators to assist in identifying suspicious activity.
John Cavacini, President of the West Virginia Racing Association, said: “This now puts the casinos and racetracks in a position to apply for a license and be licensed by the Lottery to be a sports betting venue. With that happening, the tracks now have the confidence of going out and picking their vendors and purchasing equipment and making capital expenditures that would have been hard to do without having to have a license in hand.”
The Lottery believes sports betting will have an economic impact of $5.5m in its first year. The West Virginia Sports Wagering Act, which officially became law on March 9 2018, allows four racetrack casinos and the casino at The Greenbrier to offer sports wagering. The Greenbrier Casino has already announced a partnership with sports betting company FanDuel. It will launch an onsite betting platform inside The Casino Club at The Greenbrier, as well as a FanDuel-branded online site and mobile application by the autumn.
