Sports betting has been legal in West Virginia for more than one year, but Lottery Director John Myers said it can be a “pain in the butt.” He stated, “The expectations are different from different people. Some folks have high expectations, because they enjoy doing sports wagering and they’ve not been able to see that come to fruition, although that’s not been something the Lottery can typically affect, because we’re not setting up the systems, placing wagers or making odds. We’re just making sure everything has been done within the law.”
Myers said several staff members have been devoting many hours working with casino operators testing their sports betting programs to make sure they’re in compliance.
He noted the lottery had sales of $1.14 billion last year, “and not even $2 million was from sports betting. That’s less than 1 percent.” Prior to passing sports betting legislation in 2018, the Lottery Commission estimated West Virginians spend $250 million on black-market betting, and that sports betting would generate $5.5 million within five years. Myers, who wasn’t the lottery director when that estimate was submitted, said he doubts sports betting will ever bring in that amount.
“We didn’t really know exactly what we would do our very first year. We’re ending the year close to $1.2 million. I think it’s lower than what we expected, but not as much as what others expected it to be not having two of the casinos operating for part of the fiscal year. We would have seen some additional revenue, I’m sure, although we did get the majority of the football season, which is typically the largest revenue generator,” Myers said.
He said sports betting revenue could rise if a casino implements a mobile app. “To be honest, without having a full year of operations, I’d just be guessing. I’ll say we’ll see $2 million this year, but I can’t guarantee that.” The state collects 10 percent of revenue casinos earn from sports betting, and also requires casinos to pay $100,000 for licensing and renewal fees.
Myers noted at one point last year, all five casinos operated sports betting and two owned by Delaware North, in Wheeling and Nitro, had a mobile app. “But that was shut down due to a dispute because of a third-party IT vendors. The mobile app has not restarted. The remaining three casinos, though, are running a retail operation inside,” he said.
Delaware North has since filed a lawsuit against Miomni Gaming and its chief executive officer for alleged fraud and breach of contract. The BetLucky mobile app went down March 6. Delaware North claimed Miomni didn’t own the intellectual property and didn’t communicate that fact. Court documents said the intellectual property is owned by a third party, which was involved in a licensing dispute with Miomni. Delaware North expected the problems to be fixed quickly, but now apparently will have to start over.
Myers said Charles Town Casino’s sports betting mobile app, to be operated by DraftKings, still is being programmed. He said testing was completed earlier this year, but the casino owners still are working to construct the actual app. “The way they had it set up was sort of an if-then situation. If we set it up this way, is it going to work? Yes, it did work, but they still have to do the setup,” Myers said.
