West Virginia joins fight for legal sports betting

The American state wants to add sports betting to its list of gaming options.

US.- A bipartisan group of eleven state Delegates presented a bill that would allow the State Lottery Commission to draft the regulations for legal sports betting in West Virginia. HB 2751 is the sixth attempt to legalise sports betting in the United States in 2017.

The West Virginia House Bill is seeking the cancellation of the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA). The sports protection act that was passed in 1992 prevents states from offering gambling lines on sports. Nevada, Oregon, Delaware, and Montana were granted special exemptions, as all four of those states were offering some variation of sports lotteries back in 1992. The American Gaming Association said in January that they are encouraged because the U.S. Supreme Court has expressed interest in the problems posed by PASPA, the failed law that fuels a US$150 billion illegal sports betting market.

Even if the state is not the first one to try to legalise the sector, it has certainly supported states like New Jersey in its fight against the federal law. According to West Virginia’s attorney general, PASPA violated the 10th Amendment, and he decided to challenge the usurpation of the federal government of state authority to regulate sports pool betting.

Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Maryland are the other fight states that are currently trying to legalise sports betting. The latter is the only one who’s not challenging a federal law.