Regulators in West Virginia plan to visit the four other U.S. states with legalized online casino gaming and poker—Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada—as they draft regulations for online gaming in their own state.
The state hopes to have new regulations in place by spring 2020.
“We want to go and visit some states that have the product so we can make sure we are doing it in the right way,” West Virginia Lottery Director John Myers told WV MetroNews.
West Virginia approved an online gaming bill in March. According to Myers, online gaming in the state will operate much like sports betting, where casinos will contract with third-party providers to operate their products. The state lottery will license and regulate the industry.
“When we were doing sports wagering, we were learning new terminology, and there are new ways to set things up inside the casinos,” Myers said. “You’ve got differences in the way you set up table games to sports wagering to racetrack video lottery.”
Like sports-betting licenses, online licenses in the state will cost $250,000. The state will collect a 15 percent tax on all online gaming revenue compared to the 10 percent imposed on sports betting. What remains undecided is how many online partners West Virginia casinos will be allowed.
