West Virginia Becomes 5th US State to Legalize Online Gambling

Governor of West Virginia has signed necessary legislation to legalize online casino and poker gambling in the state. The Gov. Jim Justice approved the West Virginia Lottery Interactive Wagering Act (HB2934) on Wednesday. The bill had been passed by both the state’s legislative chambers earlier in the month. The passage of this bill will enable the state’s five land-based gaming licenses to provide online casino and poker products to state residents.

The governor waited as long as he could to veto a series of bills already approved in the legislative session that was concluded this month. Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder had issued a last-minute veto of the state’s online gambling legislation in December post-adjournment of the year’s legislative procedures. There were concerns that Justice would follow in his footsteps, but Justice spared online gambling as he vetoed 27 other bills on Wednesday.

The other four states in the nation where online gambling is legalized are New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. One must note here that Nevada is yet to authorize online casino operations. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, has had the prerequisite legislation to permit online gambling in place for the last 18 months but no online gambling operations at present.

The new legislation in West Virginia needs the West Virginia Lottery, i.e. the administrative head of all gambling operations in the state, to decide and finalize upon all the online regulations before June 2020. If this were true, West Virginia residents could participate in legal onlinegambling before the end of the coming year. However, a more realistic target would probably be early-2021.

Not just online gambling but digital sports betting has also been legalized!

The five US states to have legalized online gambling have also approved digital sports betting. West Virginia’s only digital sports betting operations will not reap any benefits from this legalization. The endeavor which was managed by Delaware’s North Wheeling Island and Mardi Gras casinos has suspended its services in a highly abrupt manner this month. Services were suspended after the digital sports betting outfit could not resolve an ongoing dispute between Miomni Gaming – Delaware North’s online tech partner and Miomni’s third party vendor Entergaming.

Either way Gov. Justice’s ruling brings cheer to the residents of West Virginia, allowing them to enjoy their online casino and poker play guilt-free. Once they’ve their digital sports betting operations reinstated – it will be another legal online gambling option for West Virginians to explore.