West Virginia’s lottery commission has set its rules for sports betting in the state, and its director says the goal is to have sports wagering underway by football season.
The rules were approved at an emergency meeting Thursday, media outlets reported. West Virginia Lottery Director Alan Larrick said the rules give the state’s five casinos plenty of time to become familiar with the regulations.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to get sports betting available by football season — that’s what our goal is,” Larrick said. “We don’t know if we’re going to make it or not, but we’re going to try.”
West Virginia passed its sports betting law earlier this year, shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal law that had banned most sports betting.
The rules spell out what information casinos have to supply to the Lottery and what they need to do to stay within compliance, Larrick said.
“Our focus is going to be auditing, so we can be sure the numbers that are given by the casinos are accurate,” he said. “Then, we can base our (tax collection) on the correct number.”
Regarding security, the rules task casino operators to have controls in place to uncover any unusual betting activity “and report such activity according to the integrity monitoring system procedures” that were approved by the commission.
Additionally, casinos have to make sure off-site wagers are from people actually present in West Virginia at the time of the wager. The operator is required to use geolocation technology “to reasonably detect” the location of whoever is accessing sports betting online.
Sports betting on casino premises has to be done from a booth located in a sports wagering lounge, or sportsbook, that meets necessary requirements, or other locations as approved by the Lottery, the rules say.
But casinos need to construct those facilities first, so the rules also address interim sports betting licenses for casinos. This allows them to get in on the sports betting action even if their sportsbook is still under construction, Larrick said.