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Sports betting was set to launch in West Virginia this coming Saturday. The state is likely to have sportsbooks at each of its five casinos, some of which are accessible from out-of-state cities such as Pittsburgh, DC, Baltimore and Youngstown, Ohio.
Until recently, sports betting from the States was available only via internationally-licensed online websites and by traveling to Las Vegas. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May abolished previous decades long prohibition of the activity. States now have the ability to amend their own laws as a result. Only a handful will offer sportsbooks this Football season, however.
Hollywood Casino in Charles Town will become the first of five state casinos in West Virginia to offer sports betting.
Staffers are going through the final paces of training on new sports betting machines.
"It's going to be big," Erich Zimny, vice president for racing and sporting operations at Hollywood, said Monday. "Just how big is tough to say."
"I can't tell you how many calls and questions I've gotten about the sportsbook, when it's going to open," Zimny said. "It's nice to have this amount of buzz and excitement going on."
West Virginia's sportsbooks should attract heavy action on College Football due to the state's love of its area Mountaineers. Unlike in New Jersey, where books will not be taking action on state schools such as Rutgers and Seton Hall, action on the Mountaineers will be permitted.
Saturday, at 11 a.m., former Washington Redskins quarterback and longtime NFL broadcaster Joe Theismann will headline opening ceremonies at the sportsbook.
The casinos expect to be able to off IN-PLAY WAGERING soon.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
