West Virginia Gambling Legislation Waits For Better Days To Come

Although Wheeling-Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack was about to regulate the second gambling site in Ohio Country…

…the legislation allowing this to be conducted was voted down.

The highlight of such act was the idea to allow WV licensed establishments with dog racing to set up an extra satellite facility which would make it possible for them to operate table games and video lottery terminals.

Maroney Cannot Make Up His Mind

At first, Senator Mike Maroney, agreed with the bill in general, but it was the direction in which it was moving through the Legislature that he didn’t actually find appealing. He described the whole thing as the one that simply “doesn’t the smell test.”

He also added that the office of Government, Jim Justice, is putting pressure on them. As Maroney points out, it’s the Government that doesn’t have a clear attitude on this one. What confuses him is:

“They (the Government) supposedly don’t have an interest in this, so why are they calling everybody on the committee?”

Blame It All On Wheeling City Officials

As John Cavacini, the president of the West Virginia Racing Association, claims, the main problem was that the city of Wheeling was playing around and postponing the announcement of the approval. Such behavior made their opponents, the bar machine people, think they are against the legislature.

On the other hand…

… the Mayor of Wheeling, Glenn Elliott, denies ever meeting or discussing the matter with Cavacini. He adds that he really has no idea what made Cavacini form such an opinion. The city was actually neutral about it.

As a matter of fact, Elliott believes that the Ohio Country Commission were actually introduced to the bill without any consultation beforehand. Making it clear who is the one responsible for the final result, he points out the importance of building . Naming it an oversight, he clarifies that the city was to look out for taxpayers, which he did, and not to the legislation.

The Future To Bring Life To Legislation In West Virginia

Despite the current outcome of the whole situation, Maroney is positive that bill has chances to succeed. In his mind, what it takes is…

…more time to reconsider it in detail.

He believes that as soon as the people of WV become aware that this is actually a small business that would bring jobs to many, things will start moving in a positive direction.

Time will tell whether all the officers will be able to find a common language and make the whole thing work for the benefit of each side.

Source:

“West Virginia gambling legislation dies”, newsandsentinel.com, March 5, 2019.