West Virginia to Regulate Online Gaming?

West Virginia's Lottery Director John Musgrave recently met with casino executives from land based operations in the state to discuss online gambling. After the meeting, Musgrave stated that, "We're still exploring online gaming, we feel that's the way the industry's moving, so we want to plan for it. We have not yet made any decision for how we're going to implement it, but we're looking at it." Musgrave believes that the state would not need a change to the law, and that online lottery sales could be implemented almost immediately, with the possibility of online poker and casino to follow, however that would require changes to state law.

The move to offer online gaming would be done to boost the falling land based casino revenues as they are still in decline due to more competition from Maryland and Ohio. West Virginia is home to four racetrack casinos and there's a good possibility that they could be hit harder with a new smoking ban due to be imposed. The state could be following in the footsteps of the 3 others to have so far regulated online gambling, those of Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware, however mixed results have been returned, and in New Jersey especially, it has not been the success that was hoped for. Online casino games players in the state of West Virginia do of course at present have many options when it comes to online gambling as there are many great US online casinos that allow them to indulge themselves in their favorite games. There's a myriad of options when it comes to offshore regulated casinos and many West Virginians log in regularly to enjoy the offerings.