West Virginia Lottery Fast-Tracks Online Casinos Alternative Rules

An application for the regulation of online casino gaming moved through the West Virginia Regulatory during the spring of 2019 with a speed that betting-related bills are generally held with.

Nevertheless, it has been a long wait for the West Virginia State Lottery to introduce some temporary rules. This is to map the way for the unveiling of legal online casinos, along with poker websites that are within the Western side of the Virginia state.

With a lack of gambling activities on online gambling issue for over year. There was an assumption the Virginia state online casino would be readily available in late 2020 or early 2021. And, as it stands it seems like the wait will not be that long rather since some online poker websites will be readily available this summer.

West Virginia Agrees to the Casino Emergency Rules

During the month of April, the West Virginia Lottery, the regulators were asked to work on overseeing the Mountain State’s gambling industry went on and approves some emergency rules for the launch of online casinos.

This means that the agency will have until July to make sure that online casino along with poker gaming are readily available in West Virginia. Despite the fact that there are some gambling experts that believe that the rules would have been introduced earlier. The Lottery is still in the right track and they are taking action in making sure that all will be done upon the agreed deadline.

However, the shutdown of casinos around the USA due to the coronavirus was one of the reasons that enabled the regulators to act diligently on opening online casino gaming. In addition, other states that already have online gambling for a while have witnessed a flow in online casino and poker gaming traffic ever since the closure of land-based casinos.

Casino Rules Need Approval from WV Secretary of State

The West Virginia Lottery is supposed to send the emergency regulations to the Secretary of State by mid of this month. The Secretary of State will only have 42 days to approve or reject the rules. This simply means that the first online gambling operations will kick off sometime in July.

Nevertheless, the interim license will be good for 270 days. And during that time the Lottery will carry a comprehensive review and determine whether gaming operators should have full licenses.

At this point, the Lottery emergency rules will be effective for 15 months. This is after it has been approved by the State Secretary. Moreover, during the 15 months period. The state legislator will then be expected to permit permanent rules that will authorize the running of online gambling in the WV State.

Who Will Enter West Virginia Online Gambling Market?

Under the currently introduced emergency rules, most of the land-based casinos in the state obtained a master license from the West Virginia Lottery. This will enable them to figure out who will partner with the three upcoming online casino operators.

Online casino operators will be required to pay a $100,000 license fee. At the same time, software providers will be strictly be required to get operating license so that their gaming products will be available in the state.

The West Virginia state will have approved online sports betting in the state. This gave birth to sports betting websites such as FanDuel, DraftKings as well as BetMGM. These are the current three licensed gambling operators approved to offer online gaming in the state.

Conclusion

West Virginia Lottery in WV state will surely offer players the best gambling experience. The most amazing thing is that the State Secretary is ready to issue out license to willing gambling operators to offer gaming platforms.

This means that more opportunities will be coming simply because there might be other operators that might consider a move to WV state. For real money players, more gaming options will be also available and that means more winning opportunities as well.

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