The timing of the bill\u2019s enactment is interesting, since it comes just months after the Department of Justice revised its opinion on the Wire Act, reversing the Obama-era opinion from 2011 that paved the way for the state-sanctioned online gaming.<\/p>\n
The new opinion potentially threatens the existence of these markets \u2013 and all forms of interactive gambling \u2013 and may cause some states that are discussing online gaming to hold back.<\/p>\n
But West Virginia would not be cowed. In fact, the language of the bill expressly asserts the state\u2019s Tenth Amendment rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal government is a government of limited and enumerated powers, and powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved for the states and its respective citizens,\u201d states the bill.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cThe Legislature finds that section 36, article VI of the Constitution of the State of West Virginia grants the state the exclusive right to lawfully own and operate a lottery in this state,” it adds. “Authorization of wagering on any constitutional lottery within West Virginia is within the state\u2019s sovereign rights as a state to act in the best interest of its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
West Virginia\u2019s Interactive Wagering Act lapsed into law on Wednesday after the veto deadline passed without action from Republican Governor Jim Justice. The governor\u2019s quiescence means the Mountain State becomes only the fourth in the US to legalize online casino gaming and the fifth to legalize online poker, after New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Nevada […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":101586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13,13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
West Virginia Online Gaming Legalized, States Becomes Fifth to Regulate<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n