In March, in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court lifting the federal ban, the West Virginia legislature passed a bill allowing sports betting at casinos and racetracks. Since then the West Virginia Lottery has been developing rules and regulations for the state’s five casinos to implement sports betting as soon as possible. General Counsel for Lottery Danielle Boyd said, “Our goal is still to have everybody up and running by football season. September 1 at the very latest.”
Lottery Public Relations Manager Randy Burnside added, “Our goal is to have sports books operational by the start of football season. There’s a lot that needs to be done before we can get to that point, but we know our facilities are looking to aim for that.”
Jeff Morris, vice president of public affairs at Penn National Gaming, owner of Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in Jefferson County, applauded West Virginia for proposing “reasonable” tax rates and application fees: receipts will be taxed at 10 percent and casino operators will pay a $100,000 licensing fee. A state-hired consultant estimated West Virginia casinos could produce $5-$9 million in sports-betting revenue in the first year.
Boyd said hopefully sports betting will be available at casinos and also via mobile apps. “Our goal is to ultimately offer both those products and roll them out at the same time. But if it would come to a point where land-based operations were ready to launch and mobile was not, that would be a consideration that we would make.”
Boyd said all five casinos are planning or starting to build sportsbook lounges on their property. “We’re also going allow them to construct temporary facilities so that if their lounges aren’t quite ready for when they can begin accepting wagers by mid-August, we’ll go ahead and approve temporary specifications so that they can begin offering sports betting on premises,” she said.
Boyd concluded, “We’re excited to see West Virginia out in front for once and we’re hoping to really capitalize on the knowledge and experience of the partners that we’re working with, both at the casino level and also the consultants we’ve brought here to West Virginia, to make sure we get the best model and the best structure in place. We’re excited for everybody to capitalize on the revenue opportunities and also so that we can drive traffic into the state and our facilities.”
