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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The record-breaking 1,931-strong field of the EPT Barcelona Main Event was reduced to just 56 survivors during Day 3 of the tournament. The remaining players are set to resume play today at noon local time at Casino Barcelona. They will be led by Ireland’s Mark Buckley, who emerged as the chip leader after the dinner break last night to eventually squeeze 2.65 million chips into his bag. 
Buckley is topping the chip counts chart but he has several players right behind him in the chip counts chart and will have to step up his game early on Day 4 in order to be able to pull ahead. Late-night doublers Fabiano Kovalski from Brazil and Matthias Tikerpe from Estonia will too enter Day 4 of the tournament with considerable chip stacks. Kovalski bagged 2.65 million last night and is trailing closely behind Buckley. Tikerpe is, too, not far away with his stack of 2.35 million. 
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 EPT Barcelona has over the years made a name for itself as a record-smashing festival and this year showed no diversion from this trend. The brand-new edition of the €5,300 Main Event drew a record number of 1,931 entries (including 457 re-entries) who generated a massive €9,365,350 prize pool. 
Wilinofsky is leading a pack of 259 hopefuls with his 850,000 stack. He is ahead of David Petrzelka with 771,000 and Ali Imsirovic with 723,000, who too comprise the top three chip stacks of the night. It could be said that Imsirovic dominated action towards the end of Day 2 and could have easily been the chip leader, if it were not for Patrik Antonius who won a key hand to trim him back. Despite that setback, Imsirovic is still in a good position to attack the first-place cash on Day 3. 
The owners of two NFL clubs have not disposed of their stakes in daily fantasy operator turned bookmaker DraftKings as the new season is weeks away from kicking off and sports betting legalization efforts are gaining pace in multiple states. 
At present, fantasy sports is DraftKings’ primary product. However, in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, CEO Jason Robins said that it will not be long before the company begins deriving the majority of its revenue from sports betting. He added that they expect that to happen in the next two to three years, depending on “how fast the states roll out”. 
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. 
The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska has announced that it will open its casino, currently under development in Carter Lake, Iowa, in late October, despite facing legal challenges from the states of Nebraska and Iowa. 
Last fall, the National Indian Gaming Commission ruled that the Ponca Tribe could develop its gaming facility on 5 acres of land it owns in Carter Lake. The tribe currently has 4,300 enrolled members, half of whom live in Nebraska and Iowa. 
The WPT500 Los Angeles in entering its closing stage after nine days of quality poker action at The Bicycle Casino in the Los Angeles area. The $570 buy-in tournament drew a field of 2,509 warriors, all eyeing the first-place prize and the accolades that accompany a champion. However, there are just nine of them left in contention and it is a matter of hours before it becomes clear who will be the one to claim the title. 
Day 2 of the event was played Sunday at The Bike. Play commenced with 124 players and lasted until WPT regular Minh Nguyen was eliminated in 10th place for $17,790 in prize money. The player hit the rail after failing to hold up against Michael Copeland. As for Copeland, the chips he collected from Nguyen helped him cement his lead. 
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. 
Greece’s land-based casinos saw an enormous slump in the amount wagered by customers in 2017. According to information released by the Hellenic Gaming Commission earlier this week, patrons wagered €1.58 billion at the country’s gambling establishments last year, down nearly 50% from the amount of €3.18 billion reported for 2008. 
The Hellenic Gaming Commission launched earlier this month a pre-tender consultation period, seeking input from companies interested in building a casino as part of a larger integrated resort plan for the former site of the Elliniko International Airport near Athens. 
Poker excitement is building up at The Bicycle Casino where the latest installment of the WPT500 is taking place. The ongoing WPT500 Los Angeles is a special one. The $570 buy-in tournament features a record number of starting flights, which means a record number of opportunities for player to join the field. 
The Turbo-structure Day 1N also took place on Friday at the host casino. It drew 100 warriors seeking a shot at the title and the first-place prize. After 22 levels of play, there were only five players left to whom the original field had been whittled down. 
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. 
Days 1K and 1L of the latest edition of the $570 buy-in WPT500 Los Angeles were played at The Bicycle Casino in the Los Angeles area on Thursday. The two starting flights drew a combined of 264 entries who brought the overall field to 1,459 contenders. 
The second starting flight of the day kicked off at 5 pm local time and featured a Turbo format. It drew an 83-strong field that was eventually reduced to just four players. Jeff Yarchever will be leading Day 1L’s pack of survivors with a significant advantage over his three remaining opponents.
The WPT500 Los Angeles is in full swing as ten of the event’s sixteen starting flights are already in the books. The most recent two were ticked off as completed last night at The Bicycle Casino. Days 1I and 1J together drew 240 contenders on Wednesday to swell the overall field to 1,195 entries. Of that overall field, there are just 60 left in contention for the title and the first-place prize. 
The Day 1J (Turbo) starting flight saw 66 players in attendance. That field was eventually whittled down to the final three players. Douglas Claybrook emerged as the chip leader, putting 600,000 in his bag at the end of the day. Chris DeMaci with 507,000 and Min Zhang with 214,000 were the other two fortunate players who made it through the end of the event’s tenth starting flight. Action lasted through Level 23. 
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. 
