West Virginia quietly became the fourth state to launch legal sports betting after the US Supreme Court struck down in May a federal ban on wagering on professional and collegiate sports leagues.
Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in Charles Town, West Virginia accepted yesterday its first bet, thus soft-opening its sportsbook. The casino’s wagering facility is operated by the US division of British bookmaker William Hill.
House Delegate Jason Barrett put the first bet on Thursday to participate in a historic moment for the state’s and the US gambling industry. Delegate Barrett placed $50 on the West Virginia Mountaineers to win the football national championship. He will win nearly $3,000 if that happens. The state lawmaker told local media that it was extremely easy to bet and that it really reminded him of betting on horse racing.
The General Managing Counsel of the West Virginia Lottery, Danielle Boyd, has confirmed the opening of the state’s first sportsbook and has pointed out that the despite the facility’s grand opening on Saturday, it is “officially open” now.
Hollywood Casino, which is owned and operated by Penn National Gaming Inc., will host a larger-scale opening ceremony for its sportsbook tomorrow at 11 am local time. A mobile app that will allow the casino’s patrons to wager while at the property via their mobile phones is expected to be rolled out in the next couple of weeks.
Commenting on the launch of their sportsbook, Hollywood Casino Head of Sports Erich Zimny told local media on Thursday that they are happy that West Virginia has jumped on the betting bandwagon quickly and has thus secured a competitive edge over neighboring Maryland.
A bill allowing sports betting at Maryland’s gambling venues was introduced last year but was voted down by legislators. It is believed that it will be reintroduced next spring. If it gains the necessary support in the state Legislature, it will then have to survive a statewide referendum in order to be enacted.
Exemplary Regulatory Framework
West Virginia was actually among the states that passed a legislative framework ahead of the US Supreme Court ruling in May that allowed individual states to legalize sports betting, if they felt inclined to do so. This facilitated the early launch of sports betting services at the state’s existing gambling facilities.
Commenting on the state’s wagering regulatory framework, Delegate Barrett said that it should be model for the rest of the nation and that he believes they have done it right.
According to preliminary estimates by the West Virginia Legislature, the state’s sports betting industry would contribute additional revenue of around $5.5 million to the coffers during the first year. However, a separate, Lottery-commissioned study presented a much more optimistic picture for additional revenue of between $9 million and $17 million.
Five of the state’s casinos have lodged interest in operating sportsbooks. They were all required to pay a $100,000 licensing fee. In addition, they will have to contribute a 10% tax on adjusted gross sports wagering receipts.
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Nayong Pilipino Foundation officials once again denied corruption allegations and stressed on the legality of the foundation’s deal with Hong Kong casino resort developer Landing International Development that secured the latter with a land plot for the development of a $1.5-billion hotel and casino complex. 
In a written statement released across several local news outlets on Wednesday, the foundation said that it has followed “all procedural and legal requirements” before the project was launched and that its members were “falsely and maliciously accused” of corruption. 
The 2018 edition of the WPT500 Los Angeles is now in the books. The tournament drew 2,509 entries who challenged their luck and tested their skills against each other at one of California’s hottest poker destinations – The Bicycle Casino. In the end, it was Michael Copeland who posed for a celebratory picture and then pocketed the first-place prize of $181,950 for outlasting his many opponents. 
Copeland faced Pineda heads-up. The eventual winner had nearly three times more chips than his final opponent at the time cards were thrown in the air for the two-handed match. And it was not a long battle. It actually took around ten minutes for Copeland to finish off his last opponent. 
It has been three months since the US Supreme Court struck down the 1992 nationwide ban on sports betting. The historic ruling led up to the legalization and launch of sports betting offering in several states and started discussions over the potential of a regulated sports betting industry in multiple other states. 
In an email to Sports Handle, Sen. Carroll has said that the group has decided on the basis for taxation when and if sports betting is legalized in the state. Wagering will thus be taxed on net revenue, but a rate is yet to be determined by lawmakers. 
With sports betting growing into an almost nationwide mainstream venture, more and more parties are becoming aware that what could turn into an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars is currently in the making. And more and more parties want a piece of that large and juicy pie. 
The nine lawmakers tasked with crafting the state’s sports betting regulatory framework have quite some work to do. For instance, they will have to decide where sports betting will be offered and who will regulate the industry. 
Chinese casino tycoon Lui Che Woo is confident that Galaxy Entertainment Group will build a $500-million integrated resort with a gaming floor on the Philippine island of Boracay, despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s apparent disdain for casinos. 
In his CNBC interview, Mr. Lui said that their Boracay resort will target high-end customers from the Asia-Pacific region. However, there will be a clear focus on non-gambling offering. The casino floor will thus represent a small portion of the whole complex and will only feature several dozens of gaming tables. The businessman went on to say that it will be their goal to “restore the beautiful natural scenery” of Boracay to how it had been before.
Saturday was an eventful day at The Bicycle Casino in the Los Angeles area as the ongoing WPT500 Los Angeles finally concluded its starting flights stage. Over the course of the past eight days, as many as 2,509 entrants paid the $570 buy-in fee to try their luck and challenge their skills in one of WPT’s most exclusive series. 
Day 1P (Turbo) was the event’s final starting flight. It was, too, played yesterday at The Bike. The flight attracted 189 entries who were eventually whittled down to just nine players. Paul Lee bagged the largest stack of that closing starting flight. The player will enter Day 2 with 830,000 worth of chips. 
A Nevada judge has recently dismissed a defamation case lodged by disgraced casino tycoon Steve Wynn against The Associated Press and an AP reporter. It was in April when Mr. Wynn’s legal team filed a complaint against the news agency over a report published in February about two women’s accounts to police accusing the businessman of sexual misconduct. 
In a recent written order, Judge Ronald Israel from the Clark County District Court ruled that the Associated Press’ reporting on the two sexual misconduct police reports was fair and no additional information could have been provided about any of the two women at the time because their names were blacked out in police documents obtained by the news agency and its reporter under a public records request. 
The Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit, has slapped a hefty fine on a Betsson subsidiary for serving Dutch players without holding the necessary permission, the Malta-headquartered online gambling operator revealed in a press release from earlier today. 
The re-regulation of the Dutch gambling market has proved to be a slow and lengthy process. New regulations, ones that would create a licensing system and would allow international companies to operate in a regulated environment, was originally expected in 2015. It is also important to note that it has been more than a decade now when European authorities first urged the Netherlands to adopt a more progressive approach towards remote gambling. 
Five casino giants have expressed interest in building a casino resort at the site of the former Ellinikon International Airport near Athens, Greece, the Hellenic Gaming Commission has revealed. 
The winning bidder will be part of a grand scheme for the development of a 600,000-square-meter integrated resort that will include a number of hotels, convention, exhibition, and meeting facilities, different themed attractions and other entertainment venues, retail space, and multiple food and beverage facilities. 
Two more starting flights of the WPT500 Los Angeles are in the books now. Days 1G and 1H were played at the host facility, The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California to see the event’s overall field grow to 955 entries from a field of 764 contestants that was recorded after the two previous starting flights. 
Day 1H Turbo began at 5 pm at the host venue. Action unfolded over 21 levels. There were 47 players to register into the event through that starting field, but there were only two of them to make it through the very end of the ordeal. 
The fifth and sixth starting flights of the WPT500 Los Angeles were completed on Monday at the host venue, the Bicycle Casino. Days 1E and 1F brought the field of the brand-new edition of the popular event to a total of 764 entries. And the survivors from these two starting flights will be able to join their fellow competitors from the previous few days to progress all together into Day 2 of the $570 buy-in tournament. 
Day 1F featured a Turbo structure. It kicked off at 5 pm at the host venue to create a field of 51 entries. There were just three players left at the end of that sixth starting flight. Straton Wilhelm was the player to bag and tag the largest chip stack of Day 1F with 522,000. The player finished the day with a considerable chip advantage over his two other fellow competitors. Abdulaziz Alaquil with 264,000 and Thuy Nguyen with 235,000 were the other two to bag for the night. 
