hollywood casino west virginia sportsbook

The $5.5 million total revenue estimate was based on the “assumption that all five West Virginia casinos would have both retail and online sports wagering available for a full fiscal year,” West Virginia Lottery spokesman Randy Burnside told the News4 I-Team.

Other state operators have been slow to develop mobile sports betting platforms, leaving gamblers who wanted to place a bet to drive to the remaining retail locations. As a result of the ongoing legal battle, the Mardi Gras Casino near Charleston and the Wheeling Island Casino both shuttered their retail sports betting locations and online platforms just months after launching. State officials point to a legal dispute between a gaming operator and technology provider that caused two casinos to halt their sports betting operations for much of the revenue shortage. In the year since the first sportsbook opened at the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, one of five approved to offer sports betting, West Virginia saw only about $1 million in new tax revenue.

One state senator wagered the payoff would be even higher, declaring, “It will be closer to $9 or $10, and I'll bet on it.”īut after a year of fits and starts, the state - which offers the closest legal sports betting to the DMV - has fallen far short of those projections. As West Virginia lawmakers debated greenlighting sports betting in 2018, they pointed to predictions that allowing people to bet on games would bring more than $5 million in tax revenue the first year alone.

Hollywood casino west virginia sportsbook