West Virginia Casinos and Gambling

Short Summary: This page looks at the different forms of gambling in the State of West Virginia, discusses the legality of online gambling and gives a detailed listing of all of the casinos in the state.

It will come as a surprise to many readers that, “Wild and Wonderful,” West Virginia, a state typically not thought of in the best terms if it’s thought of at all, has some of the most liberal gambling laws in the entire country.

In addition to five casinos, (four of which have either live greyhound or horse racing) virtually all other forms of gambling are also legal within the state’s borders. Let’s address the different types of gambling available in the state:

Greyhound and Horse Racing

greyhound_and_horse_racing It would be difficult to even talk about gambling in West Virginia without discussing greyhound racing. Unfortunately, West Virginia is one of only nine states in which greyhound racing is still legal, and as of the time of this writing, is one of only four states to be home to active greyhound tracks. Arkansas is in the process of phasing out greyhound racing at its last dog track.

Making it quite possible that West Virginia will be one of only three states to be home to the so-called, “Sport,” as early as January 2023.

What makes it difficult to talk about gambling in the state without discussing greyhound racing is the fact that it’s because of greyhound racing that the state even has casinos, or at least, that the state even got them when they did.

Pari-Mutuel wagering started in the state of West Virginia in the 1930’s and the opening of Charles Town Turf Club (now home to Hollywood Casino Charles Town) marked the first fixed location for horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering on same in the state. A few years later, Wheeling Downs would open on Wheeling Island, which is now home to Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack. Originally, Wheeling Downs served mainly as a location for harness racing in the state.

In 1951, Waterford Park (renamed Mountaineer Park and now home to Mountaineer Casino and Resort) would open and join the horse racing fray. To this day, it’s the only mile-long horse racing track in the State of West Virginia.

In any event, the racing industry was financially successful for a few decades, but eventually racing started to fall out of favor with the general public.

West Virginia, in 1987, would first authorize video lottery terminals (slot machines) at Mountaineer Park. In 1994, this allowance would be expanded to legalize slot machines at all four of the racing locations within the state. In exchange, a percentage of the revenues from the slot machines are designated to the racing purses (which means the amount that the owners of the animals can win) for the various horse and greyhound races.

Portions of casino revenues also go directly to subsidies called, “Breeders funds,” to subsidize the racing industry, but these subsidies are most problematic for the state’s two greyhound racing operators—Wheeling Island Hotel, Casino, Racetrack and Mardi Gras Casino.

In effect, the slots were first authorized in 1994 in order to give these locations a chance to essentially use a different (read: popular) form of gambling to save the racetracks. In the case of Mardi Gras and Wheeling Island, voters in the respective counties also authorized the casino to have table games, (in 2007) but the same were tied to a percentage of those revenues going to the, “Greyhound Breeders Fund.”

In other words, the entire history of West Virginia casino gambling has effectively been to save the racetracks. Greyhound and horse racing have steadily declined in popularity since even 1994. For example, Wheeling Island Hotel, Casino and Racetrack would just as soon do away with greyhound racing as such operation loses money even over and above the Greyhound Breeders Fund and a portion of slot revenues allocated to the purses.

If that weren’t bad enough, the current state laws also prevent the casinos from expanding. Ironically enough, Delaware North (owners of Wheeling Island) actually wanted to open a satellite location at a nearby shopping destination, “The Highlands.”:

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately given that nobody knew Covid-19 was coming, the specific law of the states forces them to remain physically tied to their greyhound race track on Wheeling Island. In addition to being an opportunity to earn more revenues, the casino also pointed out that occasional flooding on Wheeling Island itself (happens every two or three years, on average) often forces the casino to close for multiple days at a time.

The Greyhound Breeders Fund continues to exist, in part, because the state maintains that the fund preserves jobs in the greyhound industry. However, the construction of a new Wheeling Island satellite facility at The Highlands would result in temporary infrastructure jobs as well as permanent jobs at the new gaming location—so certainly jobs must not be the exclusive focus of the state on this one.

Both casinos have lobbied throughout the years to eliminate the ties to unprofitable money-sucking greyhound operations entirely. Additionally, they seek reductions from the state (almost every year) in the number of days that they have to run the greyhounds. The fact of the matter is this: The two casinos lose money on the activity every single day that races take place.

The original purpose of the Video Lottery in 1994 was to stabilize the properties financially and allow for the preservation of the racing industries within the state. Unfortunately, revenues from racing activities have continued to drop precipitously year-after-year (particularly with greyhounds) and the state had to allow a vote on Table Games so that even more money could go to an industry that was dismally failing.

Seriously, check out a greyhound race sometime at Wheeling Island! You’ll get to sit there and enjoy the suffering of dogs for no good reason all for the entertainment and delight of maybe four or five other people who are watching it live. Granted, simulcast wagering on these events may take place, but the casino operating the races makes very little on their cut of simulcast.

Another problem faced by the West Virginia casinos is out-of-state competition, particularly in bordering Ohio and Pennsylvania. In those states, casinos don’t necessarily have to be tied to racing (Ohio has a different type of license for racinos as opposed to casinos, Pennsylvania—on the state level—doesn’t strictly require a racetrack at all) and they also don’t have a significant percentage of their gaming revenues funding an unprofitable enterprise.

It’s for that reason (as well as being newer) that the casinos in Ohio and Pennsylvania are arguably much better. They have better offerings, they have more table games, they have better returns on video poker, Pennsylvania casinos often offer free alcoholic beverages (Ohio casinos cannot because that’s illegal in the state) and they can use more of their money to hopefully reinvest in the core assets—the casino components that actually make money!

That’s the story of the racing industry in West Virginia. Eventually, the state will have to realize that the industry (especially greyhounds) is a money train with the faucet cranked to full blast and any funding diverted from casino revenues to such a worthless enterprise puts the casinos at a disadvantage to nearby competition.

Limited Video Lottery

That’s not to say that the State of West Virginia does everything wrong with respect to gambling. Not even close!

West Virginia is one of only a few states to have a fairly unrestrictive Limited Video Lottery system in place by which countless jobs have been created and players can enjoy access to live gambling machines often without leaving their city blocks!

The Limited Video Lottery Act of 2001 authorized establishments that were considered, “Adults Only,” to participate in the state video lottery and is really only restricted in terms of the total number of machines as well as what specific games are allowed.

Relevantly, the act allowed for only 9,000 such machines to be licensed across the state, which may not sound like very many, but it’s actually more than one machine per every 200 hundred residents! In fact, most years, the state lottery has not licensed the maximum allowed amount of machines.

Originally, private entities could have up to five (5) machines in a particular physical location with, “Private entities,” (such as fraternal clubs) allowed to have up to seven such machines. Those numbers have since expanded to seven (7) machines for public-facing locations and as many as ten (10) for fraternal clubs. Of course, the, “Private clubs,” aren’t really THAT private…if you’re not a member of the fraternity, then there’s usually just a guestbook you have to sign if you want to play the machines there.

The physical locations are also not too strict about the, “Adults only,” aspect. For example, many restaurants that allow children to be present have Video Lottery Terminal rooms, there’s just a requirement that the children are not allowed to enter that room. At one time, a person only had to be eighteen years old to play in casinos or these locations, but that has since been increased to twenty-one years of age.

These locations are not permitted to openly advertise themselves as gambling locations. The only exception is a circular red sign that will appear on front doors (or window) saying, “West Virginia Lottery Products Available Here.” Even with the inability to have exterior signage featuring words such as, “Slots,” or, “Casino,” these establishments are incredibly easy to find as they exist almost everywhere.

Most bars/lounges will have a Video Lottery room, or if they do not cater to underage folks at all, then the machines will often be located right in the main bar area. Many restaurants will feature a room for these machines, which includes several cafes. Many free-standing tobacco stores and outlets (the widest spread being perhaps Geno’s and/or Gumby’s) will also have machines. I’ve even found two laundromats with machines in them.

Of course, not all of these locations are even meaningfully engaged in some other type of business. There are many locations that serve no real purpose except for existing as a Video Lottery Terminal parlor.

Here’s some more information pertinent to advertising restrictions:

A. A. NO LICENSED VIDEO LOTTERY RETAILER SHALL ENGAGE IN PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES IN WHICH THE OFFERING OF LIMITED VIDEO LOTTERY IS REFERRED TO BY NAME OR LOCATION OF A LICENSED VIDEO RETAILER. AS USED IN THIS CONTEXT, THE COMMISSION HAS DETERMINED THAT THE TERMS “PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITY” OR “PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES ” MEANS ANY MARKETING OR ADVERTISING ACT OR ACTION THAT, BY IDENTIFICATION OF THE NAME OR LOCATION OF A LICENSED LIMITED VIDEO RETAILER, ENCOURAGES VIDEO LOTTERY WAGERING AT SUCH RETAILER OR LICENSED LOCATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO GIVE-A-WAYS OF MONEY, COUPONS, GIFT CERTIFICATES, MERCHANDISE, TICKETS TO EVENTS, TRIPS OR FREQUENT PLAYER INCENTIVES. NOTHING HEREIN SHALL BE CONSTRUED TO MEAN THAT LICENSED VIDEO LOTTERY RETAILERS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PROVIDING COMPLEMENTARY COFFEE, SOFT DRINKS, SNACKS OR APPETIZERS FOR CONSUMPTION ON THE PREMISES; PROVIDED, THAT THE PROVISION OF SAID BEVERAGES OR FOOD IS NOT LIMITED TO THE PLAYERS OF LICENSED VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS.
B. NOTHING IN THIS POLICY STATEMENT SHALL BE CONSTRUED TO MEAN THAT LIMITED VIDEO LOTTERY RETAILERS ARE PRECLUDED FROM ADVERTISING OR PROMOTING OTHER LAWFUL ACTIVITIES THAT ARE CO-LOCATED ON THE SAME PREMISES AS VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS. THE RETAILER MAY ENGAGE IN PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES THAT INCLUDE OR REFER TO THOSE LAWFUL ACTIVITIES…

In other words, these locations are not allowed to have any sort of, “Points,” or comps aside from little snacks, soda/pop or coffee that should be given freely to anyone on the premises. Technically, they are to give the free coffee, pop/soda or snacks to anyone, but that doesn’t happen in practice. If you go in there and just plop down drinking pop and eating Little Debbie cakes, it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll be asked to either play something or leave.

Most of these locations do offer these things for free as an enticement to players. In fact, I’ve only ever visited one free standing location (not attached to a bar or restaurant) in which these things are not free. Bars and restaurants will typically charge you for beverages anyway, though there are some that will not if you are actively playing in the video lottery room or area.

Despite some claims from the casino industry to the contrary, (particularly in a state such as Pennsylvania where casinos actively campaign against any gambling competition) these places seem to coexist quite well with the casinos in West Virginia. Compared to casinos, “Parlors,” as they call them, are relatively quiet and peaceful. In addition to that, they are convenient for most residents.

The only place where you might expect to find lottery machines that you won’t is most gas stations. My assumption is that they’re worried people will park at the pumps, go in and start playing, then the pumps will be all clogged up with cars and they’ll have to chase all the players out of the lottery room to go park somewhere else. I’ve only seen one gas station that had any video lottery machines.

Traditional Lottery

traditional_lottery One might assume that the existence of casinos and limited video lottery parlors would be detrimental to Traditional Lottery, and while that’s probably true to some extent, the traditional lottery industry still performs reasonably well. It’s also worth noting that all casino and VLT gambling, in some form or fashion, goes through the West Virginia State Lottery.

With that, let’s take a look at the West Virginia Annual Lottery Report for 2020.

The first thing that we will notice is that Instant Lottery (Scratchers) enjoyed $145,436,000 in sales for the Fiscal Year. Of that, $97,717,000 was awarded in prizes and, “Bonuses,” which results in $47,719,000 in lottery winnings off of instant tickets and an overall return-to-player of around 67.19%, which is actually quite good by crappy lottery standards.

West Virginia participates in the nationwide mega jackpot games Mega Millions and Powerball. In addition to those games, the state is also home to traditional lottery drawing games such as Pick 3 and Pick 4. All told, $61,196,000 was sold in the form of drawing tickets of one ilk or another with $30,136,000 awarded to the players in the form of prizes. This would result in a lottery win of $31,060,000 and a return to player of 49.245% for this form of lottery—gross.

In total, West Virginians would lose about $78,779,000 to traditional West Virginia State Lottery which comes out to a loss of about $43.96/resident. These numbers are extremely low for two reasons:

Wait until you see the Video Lottery Terminal numbers.
COVID-19. For comparison, residents would lose $80,851,000 in Fiscal Year 2019 for a loss of $45.12/resident.

All revenue that comes by way of the West Virginia Limited Video Lottery reflects losses and the share of the physical locations is termed a, “Commission.” For that reason, we know that West Virginians lost $329,844,000 to the Limited Video Lottery in 2020 for a loss of $184.06/resident. In Fiscal Year 2019, this loss was $218.93/resident ($392,330,000) with the decline in FY 2020 mostly attributed to Covid-19.

The Lottery report also details winnings from casino slot machines, table games and sports betting, but we will not get into that because it’s not quite a direct function of the lottery as the other ones are.

The total losses per resident might not seem quite as high when compared to a few other states, but then it’s important to remember that West Virginia is ranked as the second-poorest state according to median household income. By that standard, the lottery and casino industries are really doing extremely well!

Charitable Gambling

charitable_gambling The gambling fun doesn’t stop in West Virginia with pari-mutuel, casinos and lottery. Many forms of Charitable Gambling are also permitted throughout the state.

The two forms of Charitable Gambling permitted by the state are Bingo and Raffles. The laws for both can be found here.

Covered by Article 20 and Article 21, so let’s go over some of the highlights:

The first thing covered is that entities don’t necessarily have to be licensed to conduct, “One-off,” type raffles provided they have been bona fide non-profit entities in the state for a period of at least one year, will have no prize exceed $4,000 and do not anticipate more than $15,000 in raffle revenue within a calendar year:

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article to the contrary, any charitable or public service organization which has been in existence in this state for at least one year is hereby authorized to conduct raffles without compliance with the licensing provisions of this article: Provided, That any prize awarded in any single raffle at a raffle occasion may not exceed in value the sum of $4,000: Provided, however, That the cumulative gross proceeds derived from the conduct of raffle occasions by any such charitable or public service organization shall not exceed $15,000 during any calendar year: Provided further, That any such organization shall not be subject to the record keeping provisions of section sixteen of this article but shall maintain a separate accounting for the operation of raffles. All records required by this section shall be maintained for at least three calendar years and shall be available for reasonable inspection by the commissioner.

That’s pretty lenient for smaller organizations that just need to make a few extra bucks here and there throughout the year and might not be big enough (or have enough revenue expectation) to justify cutting through all of that red tape.

West Virginia’s fees for a raffle license for all other organizations are particularly lenient. In addition to the fact that the state takes no cut whatsoever of raffle proceeds, the licensing fee is only $500 per annum and comes with relatively little oversight aside from that:

A license fee shall be paid to the Tax Commissioner for annual licenses in the amount of $500. A license fee shall be paid to the Tax Commissioner for a limited occasion license in the amount of $50. All revenue from said license fee shall be deposited in the special revenue account established under the authority of section two-a, article nine, chapter eleven of this code and used to support the investigatory activities provided for in said section. The license fee imposed by this section is in lieu of all other license or franchise taxes or fees of this state and no county or municipality or other political subdivision of this state is empowered to impose a license or franchise tax or fee on any raffle or raffle occasion.
The gross proceeds derived from the conduct of a raffle occasion are exempt from state and local business and occupation taxes, income taxes, excise taxes and all special taxes. Any charitable or public service organization conducting a raffle occasion pursuant to the provisions of this article is exempt from payment of consumers sales and service taxes, use taxes and all other taxes on all purchases for use or consumption in the conduct of a raffle occasion and is exempt from collecting consumers sales taxes on any admission fees and sales of raffle tickets.

The regulations over and above these mostly have to do with the conduct of the raffles themselves and limitations on how much raffle operators are to be compensated for the running of the raffles. Other regulations include the type of employees and wages that are permitted for other activities (such as custodial) related to the raffle.

The raffles are often 50/50 raffles with some Pull Tab type games that take place, typically in conjunction with Bingo sessions. For that reason, where there’s Bingo, there will usually be raffles. Some organizations (such as parent-teacher organizations or fraternal organizations) will conduct raffles in absence of a bingo event, but other organizations generally do it in conjunction with Bingo.

Bingo

In terms of Bingo licenses, the entities that will be granted the opportunity to conduct Bingo events (upon application) basically follow the same rules as raffle organizations, as you can read here:

Any charitable or public service organization which has been in existence in this state two years prior to filing an application for a bingo license issued pursuant to section four or five of this article may hold bingo occasions in accordance with the provisions of this article during the time it holds a valid license.
Application for a bingo license shall be made to the Tax Commissioner and shall be on a form which shall be supplied by him or her. The application shall contain the information required by section seven of this article and any other information which the commissioner considers necessary. An application shall be filed not less than sixty days before the date when the applicant intends to hold its first bingo occasion. No bingo occasion may be held until an application filed in accordance with this article has been approved by the Tax Commissioner, and the bingo license has been received: Provided, That under no circumstances may a licensee organization conduct a bingo occasion before the sixty day filing period between the filing of the application and date of the first bingo occasion has elapsed: Provided, however, That the date the application is received by the Tax Commissioner shall begin the sixty day filing period. The Tax Commissioner shall send the applicant its license within five days after approval of the bingo application. If the filing period has elapsed, and the application has not been denied by the Tax Commissioner, and the license has not been received by the applicant, the applicant may consider the application approved and begin to hold bingo occasions. The Tax Commissioner shall send a bingo license to the applicant within five days after the expiration of the filing period if the application has not been otherwise denied.

The main difference between Bingo and Raffles is that Bingo is limited, per organization, to two sessions per week whereas raffles could theoretically take place every day if the revenues justified it. As mentioned before, most raffles in the state are conducted in conjunction with a Bingo event. Aside from that, the main thing you want to avoid is anyone under 18 playing Bingo.

The state recognizes that not all entities are going to want to hold Bingo events around the year (although many do, in fact, hold two sessions per week, year round) and because of this, they will often issue limited licenses for the conduct of Bingo as you can find here:

A limited occasion license is valid only for the time period specified in the application and entitles only the licensee to hold a bingo occasion once every twenty-four hours for a time period not to exceed two weeks. Two or more organizations may hold a joint bingo occasion provided each participating organization has been granted a limited occasion bingo license for such jointly held occasion. No bingo occasion held pursuant to a limited occasion license may exceed twelve hours in duration. Each charitable or public service organization which desires to hold bingo occasions pursuant to this section, or any of its auxiliaries or other organizations otherwise affiliated with it, shall obtain a limited occasion license notwithstanding the fact that it holds a valid annual license: Provided, That no licensee which holds an annual license may obtain more than one limited occasion license.
Only three limited occasion licenses per year in the aggregate may be granted to a charitable or public service organization and all of its auxiliaries or other associations or organizations otherwise affiliated with it, none of which hold an annual license. For purposes of this section, the various branches, chapters or lodges of any national association or organization or local churches of a nationally organized church are not considered affiliates or auxiliaries of each other. The commissioner shall by regulation provide the manner for determining to which organization, whether the parent organization, an affiliate or an auxiliary, the three licenses allowed under this section are granted.
A licensee shall display its limited occasion license conspicuously at the location where the bingo occasion is held.
All bingo occasions shall be open to the general public: Provided, That no licensee shall permit or allow any individual under the age of eighteen to participate in the playing of any bingo game with knowledge or reason to believe that the individual is under the age of eighteen: Provided, however, That an individual under the age of eighteen may attend the playing of a bingo game when accompanied by and under the supervision of an adult relative or a legal guardian of said individual.

Typically, this will be Bingo held in conjunction with some other event, such as a County Fair. It’s for that reason that the Bingo may be conducted as one session per day for up to two consecutive weeks.

Interestingly, individuals under the age of 18 may play limited Bingo provided they are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

Information on license fees generally depend on the type of group (maximum fee: $500) as well as the revenues that will be garnered by the license holder, and are quoted below:

(a) A license fee shall be paid to the Tax Commissioner for annual licenses in the amount of $500, except that for volunteer or nonprofit groups who gross less than $20,000 the fee shall be $200 and for bona fide senior citizen organizations the fee is $50. A license fee shall be paid to the Tax Commissioner for a limited occasion license in the amount of $100. A license fee of $500 shall be paid to the Tax Commissioner for a state fair license as provided in section twenty-two of this article. All revenue from said license fee shall be deposited in the special revenue account established under the authority of section two-a, article nine, chapter eleven of this code and used to support the investigatory activities provided for in said section. The license fee imposed by this section is in lieu of all other license or franchise taxes or fees of this state and no county or municipality or other political subdivision of this state is empowered to impose a license or franchise tax or fee.

The average total number of prizes to be awarded at a Bingo session is not to exceed $10,000:

Except as otherwise provided in section twenty-two of this article, during the period of a license the average total prizes awarded by a licensee, or in the aggregate by two or more limited occasion licensees holding a joint bingo occasion, for any bingo occasion held pursuant to an annual or limited occasion license, may not exceed $10,000 in value.
Prizes may be money or merchandise other than beer, nonintoxicating beer, wine, spirits or alcoholic liquor as defined in section five, article one, chapter sixty of this code. If the prizes are merchandise, the value assigned to them is their fair market value at the time of purchase.

But, it says AVERAGE for a reason. There are a few exceptions to this rule:

Once per year, an organization may apply for a Super Bingo License, by which an individual Bingo event may award up to $50,000 in prizes for one session. The cost of such license is $5,000, so as a practical matter, this never happens.
More commonly, regularly occurring Bingo events will have a player-funded progressive (sometimes more than one) which is often a Cover-All within a certain number of, “Calls,” (numbers called by the Bingo Drawer). Generally speaking, the prize will decrease in value the more numbers that are needed for someone to win the top possible prize.

Because of the way the rules work, the prize often increases weekly until it hits an amount at which it is, “Capped,” which is usually decided by the operator. Once the top prize hits this, “Capped,” amount, the operator will usually award the prize regardless of the number of calls it takes for someone to win, or in the alternative, the player-funded pool will begin accumulating for the next progressive prize until the current one is awarded.

The remaining regulations are essentially a variant of the same for raffle activities and the State of West Virginia takes no cut of the Bingo revenues over and above the licensing fees.

It largely depends on the town in question, but Charitable Bingo is a thriving enterprise in many towns within the state. For example, Moundsville, West Virginia has a population of not even 8,500 people and conducts no fewer than five weekly bingo events that this writer is aware of. Two events are at the Fairgrounds, two at the firehouse and one is at a Catholic Church’s school cafeteria. These events will often draw as many as 100 Bingo players.

The short story is that West Virginians LOVE to gamble! In fairness, some of the Bingo participants really consider it less gambling and more of a social activity.

Well, here’s what the code says:

§61-10-4. Playing or betting at gaming tables and devices; playing or betting on games at hotels and public places; penalty.
If any person bet or play at any such gaming table, bank or device as is mentioned in the first section of this article, or if, at any hotel or tavern, or other public place, or place of public resort, he play at any game except bowls, chess or backgammon, draughts or a licensed game, or bet on the sides of those who play at any game, whether the game be permitted or licensed or not, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than five nor more than $100, and shall, if required by the court, give security for his good behavior for one year, or, in default thereof, may be imprisoned in the county jail not more than three months.
§61-10-5. Betting on games of chance; furnishing money or thing of value therefor; penalty.
If any person at any place, public or private, bet or wage money or other thing of value on any game of chance, or shall knowingly furnish any money or other thing of value to any other person to bet or wage on any such game, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than $5 nor more than $300, and shall, if required by the court, give security for his good behavior for one year, and in default of the payment of such fine and the costs and the execution of such bond, if such bond be required, shall be imprisoned in the county jail not less than ten nor more than thirty days.

In other words, all forms of gambling not specifically authorized by the state and in conduct allowed by the state by way of a licensed operator are, indeed, technically illegal.

As strange as it seems, even a cash home poker game would technically be illegal in the State of West Virginia, even if no rake is taken. As a practical matter, we would assume that people who choose to hold a cash poker game at home (assuming there is no house rake) would not often be charged with anything as long as they are not otherwise creating a disturbance, but you’re doing so at your own risk.

In fact, there have sometimes been charitable poker games to take place at bars in West Virginia. There are even some people who think such games are legal, but West Virginia charitable gambling laws only allow for Bingo and Raffles.

Online Gambling

online_gambling Similarly to other states, West Virginia has recently allowed for legalized and regulated online casinos to operate within the state as long as they are also tied to a physical casino. Perhaps the most well-known of these within the state is BetMGM, but it’s a relatively young industry.

Many offshore online casinos operate within the state and compete with the licensed and regulated casinos, but they are technically behaving illegally and it is also technically a misdemeanor (though we are aware of no instance of a player being charged) for players to play at them as such constitutes unlawful gambling. In any case, the operators of such websites are offshore, and therefore, out of West Virginia’s legal reach.

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Sports Betting

In 2018, West Virginia became the fifth state to legalize Sports Betting in both its physical casinos and any online casino (since then) linked to one of the state’s physical casinos.

In Fiscal Year 2020, sports betting win for all sources (casinos) combined was only about $19,150,000 based on the state’s 10% cut of all win being $1,915,000, so the results are pretty mixed. It’s really tough to say how much of this win wouldn’t be going to some other area of the casino anyway. It’s also tough to do an apples-for-apples type of analysis given the impact that Covid-19 had on all gambling during part of the Fiscal Year.

Summary

In summation, West Virginia has every kind of gambling a person could ever want, unless a person wants to play social home gambling games with no money going to a, “House,” in the form of a house edge or rake. They’re just out of luck, then.

But, with seemingly every possible form of gambling available to its residents, West Virginia is one of the most liberal gambling states in the country and has, in fact, been one of the most friendly states to gamblers for a very long time!

Land Casinos In West Virginia

West Virginia is home to five Land Casinos of which none are Native American owned and four are racinos, which in the case of the state, just means they are tied to a racetrack.

The Greenbrier is a resort located within the state and represents the only casino that is not tied to a racetrack. We will get into that a bit under that heading.

The Casino Club at The Greenbrier

The Greenbrier resort is located in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and is one of only a few luxury resorts within the state. The Greenbrier existed for a long-time without a casino, but facing financial hardship, the State of West Virginia allowed for a Greenbrier County public referendum to decide whether or not the resort could add a casino.

In November 2008, the voters of the County voted to approve such a casino, but it was too late for the then-owners of the resort, who would file for bankruptcy in March of the following year. The property would be bought out of bankruptcy by the Justice Family Group whose patriarch, Jim Justice, is the Governor of the state as of the time of this writing.

The Justice Family Group would buy the resort out of bankruptcy (there was originally a deal with MGM Resorts that fell through) and would add a casino to the property.

The way that this casino works is that only, “Guests,” of the Greenbrier are permitted to enter the casino. In general terms, you do not necessarily have to be an overnight guest at the resort, but you must also be at the resort for some other purpose (such as dining or golfing) in order to be allowed access to the casino.

The Casino Club has an opulence befitting the overall property’s status as a luxury resort and gaming revenues are trivial compared to the other casinos in the state. Total gaming wins for Fiscal Year 2020 for The Casino Club were barely over eight million dollars from all sources.

Unsurprisingly, the casino is a small affair consisting of only 320 slot machines and video poker games as well as 37 table games consisting of Roulette, Blackjack, Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Mini Baccarat and Craps. What is a surprise is the fact that the casino, despite its size, is home to its own sportsbook and lounge.

The casino is notable for a couple of other reasons: The first is that it’s probably one of the few casinos in the country whose table game win exceeds its machine win. The second reason is that it’s probably one of the only casinos in the country with a dress code—and a fairly strict one, at that.

If you care to visit this well-appointed and quiet casino, as mentioned, you’ll have to be a guest of the property in some other capacity.

Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races

hollywood-casino The Hollywood Casino is a racino located near Charles Town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. The property is home to one of two operating horse racing tracks in the state. It is operated by Penn National Gaming with the physical property owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties.

The horse racing events held at this location are Thoroughbred Racing and the track measures six furlongs. There was previously another track and grandstand nearby, but it has since been demolished and is used as a training facility for the horses who race at this track.

This property is scenically located as it is surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. The hotel is known as, “The Inn at Charles Town,” and features several guest rooms as well as eighteen suites of varying size and amenities—all of the suites overlook the track.

The hotel is itself clean and relatively simply appointed. It’s nothing world-beating and probably compares to a limited service chain hotel, such as a Comfort Suites or something along those lines. You’re probably coming to this property for the casino anyway.

The casino floor is home to a combined 2,500 slot machines, video poker and keno games. Hollywood is easily the most sizeable casino in the state in this regard and has machine denominations ranging from pennies to $100 machines in the high-limit room. Hollywood is also a unique casino in the sense that they offer complimentary alcoholic beverages to all players regardless of players club level or anything like that.

Table Games offered include Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, Three Card Poker, Four Card Poker, Let it Ride, Mini-Baccarat, Spanish 21, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, High Card Flush, Heads Up Hold ‘Em Poker and Pai-Gow Poker. Additionally, Cajun Stud, Big Six and Mississippi Stud are listed as, “Temporarily Unavailable.” Of course, not all of these games are going to be operating around the clock, so we would strongly recommend calling in advance if you’re looking for a particular game aside from Blackjack.

The property would normally be home to a poker room offering both Limit and No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em as well as Pot Limit Omaha poker. This poker room would normally have as many as 16 tables, but it is closed as of the time of this writing due to Covid-19.

They have creatively named the property’s sportsbook, “The Sportsbook,” and it is located near the Skybox sports bar. The property is proud to let you know that they have around fifty feet of wall space dedicated to big screen TV’s so that you can get your money down and watch the action from the comfort of just about anywhere in the book.

Aesthetically speaking, it’s just your typical Hollywood Casino that has the red, black and gold generic aesthetic. In terms of ambiance, if you’ve been to one Hollywood, then you’ve been to all of them.

The Event Center is the aptly-named place for concerts, comedy and sometimes magic acts. It appears that they plan to operate during 2021 as several events have already been scheduled. It features current well-known comedy names and the musical acts are usually nationally known talents who are a little past their prime.

The H Lounge is something of a nightclub atmosphere that would normally feature live entertainment on the weekends, but it is closed as of the time of this writing.

Eateries include the aforementioned Skybox Sports Bar, which features American bar style food. The Final Cut Steakhouse, as with many Hollywood properties, is the fine dining choice for this property and, in theory, has a dress code; it’s nothing outstanding—as with all things Hollywood, if you’ve been to one, then you’ve been to them all. The third eatery is The Eatery by Fabio Viviani, it featured prepackaged items and made to order casual American food, for the most part.

That’s about all there is to say for this casino. Despite the fact that it is near some major markets, there’s nothing remarkable about it at all. If you’re here, then it’s probably just to gamble in some form or fashion, and for that, it serves its purpose. Bigger than a locals place, smaller than a destination casino and with limited offerings: It is what it is and what it is is generic, but passable.

Mardi Gras Casino and Resort

Resort…that’s funny.

Located in Nitro, West Virginia, a well-known resort destination (sarcasm) the Mardi Gras Casino and Resort is the first of two racinos with live greyhound racing, for the 87 or so people in the entire world who still care about greyhounds. That aside, this property was owned by Hartman and Tyner, but sold to Delaware North Company (owners of Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack) in 2018.

This casino could be mistaken, in parts, for attempting a New Orleans French Quarter theme, but you’re unlikely to notice aside from the casino’s logo and exterior signage. Normally, the hotel attached to this casino would have a pool, hot tub and exercise facility (which is more than Wheeling Island can say), but all of those things are closed as of the time of this writing due to Covid-19.

The rooms and suites are intended to have something of a, “Rustic,” look, but what that really means is just furniture that doesn’t look terribly modern and probably cheaply obtained. The hotel rooms are unremarkable, but clean enough.

The casino floor is home to almost 1,000 slot machines, which puts it right around the size of the other casinos in the state, exception to the much bigger Hollywood Casino. Denominations range from pennies to $25/line. Games include slots, video poker and video keno.

Table Games include Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, “And much more.” They don’t care to specify any others on their website, so if they don’t care, then why should we?

There would normally be a poker room consisting of a handful of tables dealing mostly No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, but that is closed as of the time of this writing due to Covid-19. I imagine Delaware North will crunch the numbers before making a final decision to reopen it; the poker room at Wheeling Island seems like it may be permanently closed.

If you’re one of the few people left who actually cares, greyhound racing operates (at a huge loss) year round Tuesday-Saturday with simulcast wagering available every day.

Mardi Gras doesn’t have a sportsbook, per se, but you can make wagers on sports at the casino cage area during certain hours of the day and there are five betting terminals available if cage wagering is unavailable.

The French Quarter would normally be the property’s fine dining establishment, but it is closed as of the time of this writing due to Covid-19. It wasn’t always open even when it was supposed to be, so I wouldn’t be counting on this for your excursion to Nitro…a place you’ll probably never even consider going unless you have family there.

The property is home to a relatively large sports bar called The Sports Bar (creative!) with some grab n’ go items as well as traditional American bar/pub fare. Why do they not put the sportsbook in here? No idea.

There’s also a Casual American eatery called The Grill at First Turn (which overlooks the dog track), but it is also closed as of the time of this writing.

It doesn’t matter, if you’re here at all it’s to gamble (not eat) and you probably live nearby or are visiting nearby family. Quite honestly, we don’t really understand why this locals casino even bothered with a half-hearted attempt at a theme. It’s not really going to draw anyone who’s not already in the area anyway and nor should it.

Another bar on the property is Louie’s Lounge, which had live entertainment on weekends every once in awhile, but is closed as of the time of this writing due to Covid-19.

The truth is that this is basically just Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack with a slightly different look. The employees will be friendly because that’s something that Delaware North seems to be good at, but everything else is going to be a third-rate cost-saving version of whatever it would be elsewhere…because cost-cutting is also something that Delaware North is extremely good at.

It’s a locals casino through-and-through and the closest thing to the gambling floor that would attract anyone to it is that it’s extremely convenient to a Walmart. The only thing people in that area of West Virginia like more than gambling is Walmart, so it’s fitting.

Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort

mountaineer_casino_racetrack_and_resort First of all, get any notion that the word, “Resort,” means anything out of your mind immediately. The sad truth of the matter is that, lobby aside, Mountaineer Casino is almost a complete dump. The table games area is arguably better than that of nearby Wheeling Island, but that aside, it’s one of the saddest casino establishments to be found in the entire country.

This property is located in an unincorporated area known as Chester, West Virginia (near New Cumberland) along WV State Route 2. It really doesn’t matter, you might think that you were still in Weirton. All of the little communities along this stretch (both incorporated and not) just kind of run into one another along the Ohio River and a visitor would never know the difference.

Perhaps fittingly, this property and horse track sits right beside one of the most polluted rivers (The Ohio) in the entire country. If you’re approaching this property from the South, you’ll want to keep an eye out for two dumpy and sad looking strip clubs on your right (at least one of which is closed) and the casino will be just past those on the left. If you’re coming from the North, then the casino is actually somewhat easy to miss and if you see the dumpy strip clubs on your immediate left, you’ll need to turn around.

This property has seen its fair share of ownership changes. We will only go as far back as 1987, when it was owned by the Ogden Corporation, who owned a wide variety of West Virginia business interests. At that time, it was renamed to Mountaineer Park from its previous name of Waterford Park. Five years later, it was sold to a company called Excalibur Entertainment, then two Winners Entertainment two years later who later renamed the company MTR Gaming.

MTR Gaming then owned this property and a few other casino properties, such as Scioto Downs in Columbus, Ohio and Presque Isle Downs in the nearby Erie, Pennsylvania area. In 2014, El Dorado Gaming acquired MTR Gaming in a merger. In 2019, El Dorado would sell the physical property to Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Vici Properties and casino operations are now handled by Century Casinos.

Other than the ownership, very little about this property has meaningfully changed since the 1990’s. Slot machines were added in the early 90’s and Table Games in the late 2000’s. Aesthetically, the property supposedly has the theme of a, “Speakeasy,” but it’s barely noticeable. Parts of the casino floor are well-lit while there is a separate area that, for whatever reason, is extremely dark and mostly empty.

The race track is the state’s only one-mile oval dirt track. It hosted two graded racing events in the year 2019.

While it’s pretty common for hotel properties to take pictures of their absolute best rooms for the website, Mountaineer takes this to the extreme. In reality, the carpets are worn in most of the rooms and the furniture is extremely dated. Stains and scuffs are not at all infrequent and, if you get a really nice room, it’ll probably be comparable to one of the better economy hotels chains.

The property is home to a spa that is open Fridays-Mondays and is probably the closest thing that they can come to claiming to be a resort. The property advertises the Woodview Golf Course as one of their amenities, of course neglecting to mention that the golf course is nearly ten miles away from the casino. In any event, the golf course is nothing special. There would normally be a fitness center, but it is closed as of the time of this writing due to Covid-19.

If you exit the hotel from the side away from the lobby and towards the outdoor pool area, there was a little cat living there on my last few visits. You don’t have to be afraid to pet him; he’s friendly.

The casino floor is home to just under 1,000 slot machines, though some websites would have this number as high as 3,200 (!?). There is also 78,000 square feet of gaming space available, but what their website neglects to mention is at least 25,000 of that is empty. Denominations on slots, video poker and video keno range from pennies to $100 for a few slot machines in their high-limit area.

The only area of this casino arguably better than nearby Wheeling Island is the table games pit, which is located in the well-lit main area of the casino towards the back and near the hotel lobby. There are probably 50-60 total tables spreading Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Spanish 21, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Pai-Gow Poker and Let it Ride. Three Card Poker, Four Card Poker and Texas Hold ‘Em Bonus are temporarily not operating as of the time of this writing.

Mountaineer claims to have a William Hill Sports Book, but it’s really more of a William Hill Sports counter. The only real seating nearby is if you want to sit at a slot machine. I guess there are a few other chairs right around there, but it’s not like it’s in a separate area or anything.

In what I like to call, “The big dark room,” you’ll find the racing simulcast and wagering area, perhaps a hundred or so slot machines as well as a big completely empty space on the far side.

Mountaineer has had to move smoking all over the place because of Hancock County. At one point, they had an exemption on the indoor smoking ban until they didn’t anymore. At that point, they built a large area off of the dark room that was technically outdoors. That area was home to several gaming tables and as many slot machines as they could get in there.

Eventually, most or all of the table games and many of the slot machines were removed. Smoking was allowed inside the casino again. In response to Covid-19, Hancock County announced there was to be no indoor smoking whatsoever, this was just in December 2020, so as of the time of this writing….the casino is smoke free again.

Eateries include the Gatsby Restaurant and Buffet, which has the honorable distinction of being the worst casino buffet I’ve ever endured. The one thing that I’ll say is that the greens were really good, so was the coffee, but everything else was terrible. LBV Steak and Pasta claims to, “Rival any fine dining Pittsburgh has to offer,” which is probably true if you’ve never been to a fine dining restaurant in Pittsburgh. Big Al’s is good for quick eats like sandwiches, pizzas and Starbucks coffee…the good news is those things are nearly impossible to screw up. Mahogany Sports Bar serves sports bar food…it’s also a sportsbar, located in a casino, with ZERO bartop machines. Brilliant. The bar on the casino’s main floor has machines.

Here’s their webpage for other entertainment, it’s not worth going over.

I’ve been to many casinos in my time and it’s safe to say that this one is probably the worst, the decent and well-lit table games area aside. The slot floor makes absolutely no sense. You have a huge area right in the main casino where you’re elbow-to-elbow with people, but then a huge ridiculously dark room that sits mostly empty. Some properties are a disgrace to the word, “Resort,” and Mountaineer is a disgrace to those properties. If you’re passing by, then you might as well check it out and have a laugh if you’ve ever been to a half decent casino.

Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack

Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack is a racino located in the Wheeling Island area of Wheeling, West Virginia. Situated along the Ohio River, while it may not be as run down as Mountaineer, it’s pretty close.

Wheeling Island (the casino, not the place) is another location previously owned by Ogden Corporation; it was sold to Delaware North in 1988 well prior to the authorization of casino gambling in the state.

The exterior of the casino is somewhat appealing and was recently renovated just a year or two ago. The aesthetic isn’t that bad, especially in the Summer, when flowers adorn the walkway leading up to the casino along with larger beds of flowers near the main entrance.

One thing that may seem odd to first-timers is that the main entrance of the casino has a small gift shop on the left, a waterfall in front, and then escalators, an elevator and a stairwell on either side. The reason for that is to put the casino floor itself above the flood areas, as mentioned before, Wheeling Island (the place) floods every few years.

The casino floor can be described as pretty dingy and is not at all well-lit. The carpet is well-worn with plenty of cigarette burns to be spotted and never looked that great in the first place. The main entrance and approach (as well as signage) have a tropical theme, as do the names of some of the dining and drinking establishments inside, but nothing else about the aesthetics (aside from the hotel) has anything to do with the Tropics. Why tropical? I guess because of the word, “Island.”

The property is home to a hotel tower consisting of eight stories, of which five stories actually have rooms. There are a few suites, but aside from being bigger, aren’t meaningfully that much different from the other rooms. The tropical theme carries over to the hotel hallways and to some aspects of the rooms.

Surprisingly, the hotel rooms at Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack are actually really nice and very large. This writer would say they are up to limited service hotel standards for cleanliness and appointment. The king rooms, for example, feature a forty-two inch flat screen TV, a work desk and an office chair. Refrigerators are available upon request, but none of the rooms (except suites) come with them. Some of the rooms have some sort of air purifier that you have to pay extra for, it’s not worth it.

Availability of some amenities is limited due to Covid-19, for one example, the casino is apparently only renting rooms Thursday-Sunday as of the time of this writing, so keep an eye on their website for when that changes. We normally wouldn’t discuss specific promotions on here, but Wheeling Island (until Covid) had a promotion called, “Hot Hotel Deals,” for over a decade by which you could earn 200 players club points ($1,000 coin-in) in one day and get a free hotel room for any Sunday-Thursday day that month.

The only thing that ever changed about that promotion was the rules. Sometimes you could use the voucher for back-to-back days and sometimes you couldn’t. Sometimes you could use the voucher on the same day you earned it (if rooms were available) and sometimes you couldn’t.

I’ve spent a good deal of time at this casino and can say that the staff here are extremely friendly and many of them get to know the players somewhat well—mostly because almost all of them are locals. Unfortunately, aside from the staff and other things mentioned above, everything about this casino totally sucks.

For one thing, the layout makes almost no sense whatsoever. One example is the non-smoking, “Compass Room,” which cannot be accessed from outside of the casino and can only be accessed from inside the casino by walking through a smoking area. Additionally, the Compass Room does not have its own set of bathrooms, so you must walk through smoking areas to get to a restroom. The Compass Room also has mostly very old machines. They only get anything new to them if they’re not performing well on the main floor anyway.

There is a high-limit slots area and a non-smoking high-limit area, and neither of those have any video poker whatsoever. Once again, you have to walk through the smoking high-limit area to get to the non-smoking room, but that’s okay, because you have to walk through the main casino area (which is smoking) to get to the high-limit room in the first place.

I guess what I’m saying is this casino is best completely avoided if you’re an adamant non-smoker.

The property claims to be home to over 1,100 slot machines, and that’s probably true. Denominations range from pennies to perhaps $5 denomination, although there are some $1 denomination machines in high-limit that you can bet as much as $50 on in one spin. The video poker is extremely limited to some Spielo machines with single-line games for quarters as well as single-line quarter and dollar games at the bartops. If you want full pay on bartops, you’ll have to bet $5/hand regardless of the denomination you’re playing.

The paytables for video poker at Wheeling Island used to be pretty good compared to Regional competition, 98.91% Deuces Wild, 98.45% Jacks or Better and 98.43% Joker Poker (Kings) were all available at one time, but those have since been changed to sub-97% paytables. I’m probably the only player actually affected by the change, to be honest.

Wheeling Island does a better job than some other casinos in the state of keeping up with some of the newest slot machines, but only by a little bit.

How to describe this layout…it’s really bizarre.

If you go to the top of the escalators and make a right, that’ll take you to the Players Club desk AND hotel check-in area, which are basically the same thing. If you enter the casino floor and make a hard left, then you’ll soon find high-limit slots on your left, if you keep going, then you will have found the non-smoking Compass Room.

If you go straight from the escalators, then you’ll go past several slot machines to find Table Games in a truly bizarre location on the right and kind of surrounded by slot machines. On the left, you’ll eventually encounter two passage ways (with machines on each side of the way and a restroom for each passage) and those lead to another larger room with machines. Table Games USED to be in the back of this larger room near the casino cage, but now they’re on the main floor, even though the cage is still there. It’s a good thing the casino isn’t that big, because you basically have to cover the entire thing in order to cash your chips.

There was a smaller room to the left if you were facing the cage which WAS the poker room, but that seems to have closed in favor of more machine space due to Covid-19. That’s not a big deal because the poker room was closed most of the time anyway. The casino has been talking about shutting it down for years. They dealt No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em exclusively and had ten tables, but you’d never see more than two going. Their website says it’s temporarily closed, but I’ll be surprised if it ever opens again.

The new Table Games area, which is much worse than the old one, consists of about twenty tables, but you’ll rarely see more than eight or nine in operation. Games include Blackjack, Three-Card Poker, Mississippi Stud, Roulette, Craps and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em. They have a few tables for other games, but even at their busiest, I have never seen those tables in operation, so I’m not going to list them.

The Betly Sportsbook is, much like Mountaineer, more of a sports betting counter. It’s located near the main bar on the casino floor and the, “Television viewing experience,” they talk about are the same five or six big screen TV’s that have always been above that bar.

The greyhound racing and simulcast area has two entrances. The first is to park on that side of the property and doors enter directly into it. The second way to get there is to go to the very back of the casino, down a stairwell, walk through a long hall, go up another stairwell, walk through another hall, go up yet another stairwell and you’ll be there. It’s quite a trek, but as mentioned, almost nobody cares that it’s there in the first place and all it ever does is lose money.

Once upon a time, there were machines along that long hallway as well as another small room with machines (before they got table games) and one of those machines had a Blackjack game that returned over 100% if you knew optimal strategy. Long gone.

The dining options prove that there is no shame in this world. Though it’s closed for the time being due to Covid-19, The Buffet at Wheeling Island was heading downhill fast. The food was never consistently good, but at some point in 2017 or 2018, it stopped even being open seven days per week instead only opening on Wednesday-Sunday. Prior to that, they stopped having a breakfast buffet except for on weekends. Even the Sunday-Thursday breakfast buffet (now located in the food court) was more of a glorified continental breakfast than anything. The potatoes are pretty good, though.

Friday nights were the seafood buffet, which you would love, if you have no idea what seafood is supposed to taste like. The casino used to have a huge chocolate fountain in the early days of full gambling offerings, but they got rid of that. In fairness, the dessert selection at the buffet is still pretty good…I’d just avoid all of their other offerings entirely and skip straight to dessert if you’re absolutely intent on eating there.

The Pointe Steak & Sea is the property’s fine dining establishment, but that’s only if you think fine dining should extend only to the price. The food itself is underwhelming and I could name five better dining options elsewhere in Wheeling, which is hardly a fine dining mecca.

The sportsbar has grab and go options as well as a few other things, but that’s actually because of Covid-19…they wouldn’t normally serve food there.

The food court is pretty limited and features an awful coffee place, though the desserts are pretty good. There’s a place for pretty okay burgers and subpar other sandwiches. Finally, the food court has a pizza counter that has surprisingly decent pizzas. As mentioned, the, “Breakfast buffet,” is now located at the food court, but it hardly qualifies as a buffet and has about 10% of the selection that the actual breakfast buffet used to.

Wheeling Island is home to a number of conference rooms as well as a showroom that mostly features tribute acts and such. You’re not missing anything if you never see a show here.

This is very much a locals casino, and a pretty ratty one even by those standards. You might consider stopping by if you’re passing through, or even staying, but only if you have to be in the Wheeling area anyway. There’s really nothing to do here except for the gambling, but as mentioned before, the hotel rooms themselves are actually quite nice.

Conclusion

What we have come to find is that West Virginia has virtually every form of gambling that you could ever want, but not in any form that you would want it. The nicest and biggest casino in the state is the Hollywood Charles Town, but it just follows the cookie-cutter Hollywood Casino blueprint. The state’s other three casinos (not counting Greenbrier Resort because it’s not technically open to the general public) are all pretty dumpy locals places that there’s no reason to go out of your way to visit.

The only room for gambling expansion in the state would be if the state either:

A.) Authorizes casinos aside from the racetrack casinos.

OR:

B.) Requires that racinos stay where they are, but allows them to open up satellite locations elsewhere in the state.

As it stands, if you live in the state and want to do negative expectation slot machine playing, your best bet is probably one of the Limited Video Lottery parlors. Many of them tend to be more nicely appointed, cleaner and you’ll get free snacks, soda and coffee at most of them. Hell, the beer’s even cheaper than at any casino not named Hollywood (which gives it away); many parlors sell cans of Budweiser for $1, whereas the casinos will want four or five bucks.

In any case, the state has virtually every form of gambling that there is. If you live in the state, then you’ll want for nothing, except maybe to have a full-scale casino closer to you.