Country Roads! Take me home!
I can almost hear the war cry of West Virginia from here. There is no doubt that state is a special place, from the beautiful scenery to the awesome people. That’s why it’s not a surprise WV decided to be special when it came to sports betting and gambling overall. They immediately passed sports betting in 2018 and never turned back.
The biggest cities in West Virginia are Charleston and Huntington with around 50,000 people in each. There are no professional sports teams in the state, so the colleges get a lot of local attention. The two Division 1 colleges are Marshall and West Virginia which both have national brands.
Despite having limited local options to cheer for, The Mountain State loves their sports. That’s why they immediately jumped all over legalizing sports betting. It’s a good thing too. West Virginia was one of the early leaders in state legalization.
Yes, gambling is legal in West Virginia. In March of 2018, Senate Bill 415 hit the desk of Governor Jim Justice. Instead of signing it, he allowed the bill to pass without his signature in August. This allowed sports gambling to become legal in WV and operational in December of 2018.
Currently there are eight mobile sportsbooks operating in the state. The law allows there to be up to 15, so more sportsbooks could be coming. There were already five retail casinos and racetrack properties in place prior to legalizing sports betting. Now all five properties have a brick-and-mortar sportsbooks as well.
West Virginia also is one of the few states that allows online casino gambling and online poker.