WV Becomes Latest State To Collect $1M In Sports Betting Tax Revenue

• West Virginia sportsbooks took in almost $8 million in wagers for June.
• Hollywood Casino was responsible for 71% of the monthly betting action.
• Wheeling Island and Mardi Gras are still out of operation for both retail and mobile betting.

CHARLESTON – W.V. – Sports Betting in West Virginia has regressed into the summer as expected. It is still the case that only three of the five sports betting licenses are accepting wagers and the total betting action has now decreased every month since the year began.

The drop off was slow, as January notched a betting handle above $21 million and the subsequent months surpassed $17m, $14m, and $13m.

However, now that mobile betting has been out of operation for nearly four months and the popular betting sports such as the NFL, the NCAA, and the NBA are out of season, West Virginia sports betting is reaching new lows.

For June in WV, sports bettors wagered a total of $7.95 million, only beating the state’s September 2018 launch month when only Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races was in operation (and two weeks of The Greenbrier).

The sportsbooks were able to secure $553,105 in revenue for the month, before having to contribute roughly $47,000 of it as the state’s share. This was also the second-lowest monthly revenue total and tax contribution in the state’s legal sports betting history – only worse than February.

Since the state’s launch, tax contributions have exceeded $1 million, per the newest addition to the sports wagering revenue summary. With this, West Virginia is the last of the legal sports betting states to surpass this mark.

As far as individual sportsbook go, Hollywood Casino is still setting the pace for the industry. Their $5.6 million betting handle accounted for 71% of the total monthly handle, which higher than their year-to-date average of 61%.

However, the last week of June (June 22 – June 28), Hollywood Casino took in less than $1 million in wagers for the first time since their opening.

Mountaineer Casino posted their fifth straight month collecting at least $2 million in wagers, while notching their third highest monthly revenue total.

With the book having a hold percentage of 12.1% for the month, Mountaineer Casino was able to secure $259,000 in revenue – only $12,000 less than Charles Town, who doubled Mountaineer’s handle.

Both Wheeling Island Casino and Mardi Gras Casino are still out of operation and continue to leak cash from outstanding tickets. Since they stopped taking wagers in March, they have cashed out $4,300 and $5,300, respectively, in winning wagers.

As for FanDuel Sportsbook at the Greenbrier, they posted numbers similar to May in total handle – earning much less than their NFL and NBA season betting months.

Their notch of excellence though comes in the form of a weekly betting handle. On the week of June 8, bettors at the Greenbrier wagered $75,314 – the highest weekly total since early April. This is likely due to the second week of the French Open and the opening weekend of the FIFA Women’s World Cup concurring at the same time; however, the Lottery does not release how the handle is allocated amongst sports.

Since launch, over $125 million has been wagered in WV and thoughts of mobile betting are still a distant reality.

News tags: DraftKings | FanDuel | FIFA Women’s World Cup | French Open | Hollywood Casino | Mardi Gras | Mountaineer Casino | The Greenbrier | West Virginia | Wheeling Island | WV Lottery