Response to the Sports Leagues’ Attacks on West Virginia’s Sports Betting Bill

In seeking what has been described by at least one major league commissioner as a “royalty fee,” representatives for major league sports have fanned out across the West Virginia Capitol and taken to the airwaves to decry what they’re calling a “lack of integrity” protections in the West Virginia Sports Betting Bill. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The West Virginia Sports Betting Bill, which was introduced by the State Lottery Commission, was based on the highly successful Nevada sports betting model, which has been in place since the early 1950s.

The West Virginia Legislature, in overwhelmingly approving the bill, found that “illegal sports wagering channels operating throughout the United States pose a critical threat to the safety and welfare of the citizens of West Virginia and that creating civil and criminal penalties to prosecute illegal operators, while transferring this black-market demand into a secure and highly regulated environment, will protect the public and positively benefit state revenues and the state’s economy.”

The Legislature went on to declare that this bill is intended to “...protect residents of this state who wager on sports or other events and to capture revenues and create jobs generated from sports wagering,” and that “[I]t is in the best interests of this state and its citizens to regulate this activity by authorizing and establishing a secure, responsible, fair, and legal system of sports wagering immediately, when the federal ban on sports wagering is lifted.”

The comprehensive bill governing sports betting in West Virginia provides the State Lottery Commission, which has been successfully licensing and regulating the State’s existing casinos since 1994, plenary powers to “deny a sports betting license to any applicant, reprimand any licensee, or suspend or revoke a license.”

The law provides the Commission the authority to “promulgate any legislative, interpretive, and procedural rules it considers necessary for the successful implementation, administration, and enforcement of this article.” It can even pass emergency rules if it so desires.

Regulations promulgated by the commission may include, but are not limited to, “those governing the acceptance of wagers on a sports event or a series of sports events; maximum wagers which may be accepted by an operator from any one patron on any one sports event; type of wagering tickets which may be used; method of issuing tickets; method of accounting to be used by operators; types of records which shall be kept; use of credit and checks by patrons; type of system for wagering; protections for patrons placing wagers; and promotion of social responsibility, responsible gaming, and inclusion of the statement, “If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800 GAMBLER”, in every designated area approved for sports wagering and on any mobile application or other digital platform used to place wagers.”

All operators that will be licensed to conduct sports wagering are required to:

“(1) Employ a monitoring system utilizing software to identify non-normal irregularities in volume or odds swings which could signal suspicious activities that should require further investigation, which shall be immediately reported to and investigated by the Commission. System requirements and specifications shall be developed according to industry standards and implemented by the commission as part of the minimum internal control standards;
“(2) Promptly report to the commission any facts or circumstances related to the operation of a West Virginia Lottery sports wagering licensee which constitute a violation of state or federal law and immediately report any suspicious betting over a threshold set by the operator, that has been approved by the commission, to the appropriate state or federal authorities;”

While representatives for major league sports claim the bill would allow for minors to place wagers, the law expressly forbids any wagering by individuals under the age of 21. As it relates to “mobile wagering” there are proven software programs in use in states offering online wagering that cover age verification and online wagering on sports betting has been conducted in Europe for decades.

As for the dire warning that this bill could allow for professional athletes to wager in person or online on games in which they’re involved, the sports leagues themselves have rules and regulations covering that topic since sports betting is already legal in Nevada and Delaware. In addition, the West Virginia Lottery Commission and a sports book operator may ban any person from participating in the play or operation of any West Virginia Lottery sports wagering. In fact, a log of “all excluded players shall be kept by the West Virginia Lottery and each licensee, and no player on the commission’s exclusion list or the licensed operator’s exclusion list, shall wager on any West Virginia Lottery sports wagering under this article.” That list could easily include professional athletes if that is the League’s true concern.

The proposed sports betting law has a significant amount of teeth to ensure the integrity of sports betting in West Virginia. In fact, a person is guilty of a felony when:

“A person offers, promises, or gives anything of value to anyone for the purpose of influencing the outcome of a race, sporting event, contest, or game upon which a wager may be made, or a person places, increases, or decreases a wager after acquiring knowledge, not available to the general public, that anyone has been offered, promised, or given anything of value for the purpose of influencing the outcome of the race, sporting event, contest, or game upon which the wager is placed, increased or decreased, or attempts to do any of the same;” and

“The person places a bet or aids any other individual in placing a bet on a sporting event or other sports wagering game or offering authorized under this article after unlawfully acquiring knowledge of the outcome in which winnings from that bet are contingent.”

As seen overseas with major league soccer, the American sports leagues stand to gain enormously from legalized sports betting from increased viewership of games that would other wise be of marginal interest. 

In fact, three of the top five sports franchises in the world today are Premier League Soccer teams where sports betting has been legal for years. It’s important to note, no jurisdiction in the world imposes an “integrity fee” on sports betting. Why should West Virginia be the first?

West Virginia is right to want to put a robust regulatory framework in place to take advantage of a potential repeal of the Federal ban on sports betting. We look forward to working with the leagues and other stakeholders as the regulations are developed to ensure that sports, consumers and the State of West Virginia’s interests are protected.

John Cavacini
President, West Virginia Gaming & Racing Association

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