West Virginia officially joined the online casino club on Wednesday as state lottery officials announced the approval of the DraftKings Casino product suite.
The Boston-based sports entertainment and gaming technology company said it officially rolled out the iGaming product on Wednesday. It’s available as a standalone app or through the company’s mobile sports betting app to anyone 21 and older physically located in the state.
Online casino gaming became legal last year in West Virginia after the Interactive Wagering Act. The law lets the online gaming providers offer apps through partnerships with the state’s four racinos and the Greenbrier Resort.
This is the culmination of a great deal of hard work and planning over the course of the last year, and we are looking forward to the licensing and approval of our other casinos and their affiliated providers when they are ready to do so,” West Virginia Lottery Director John Myers said in a statement.
The DraftKings online casino is associated with the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. The apps are available for download on iOS and Android products.
Besides West Virginia, online casino gaming is legal in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. While online gaming did not completely supplement the loss of funding from the retail casinos during the COVID-19 crisis, the apps in those states still brought in millions of dollars of tax revenue and saw significant increases in traffic over the last four months.
Standalone Casino App Launched
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for DraftKings on the online casino front. On June 23, the company announced the launch of the standalone casino app in New Jersey. Casino games have been available on the sportsbook app since the company launched there in 2018, but the standalone app includes games from such providers as IGT, Slingo, and Scientific Games.
The casino app also includes access to the DraftKings Live Studio, which offers live table games around-the-clock. Evolution Gaming is the service provider for those online games.
“Following our debut in the Garden State, we look forward to continued innovation, nationwide expansion where regulations allow, and to further positioning DraftKings as an all-inclusive gaming and entertainment experience,” said Jason March, the vice president of gaming for DraftKings.
On Tuesday, DraftKings also rolled out the standalone app in Pennsylvania. It previously launched casino games in the Keystone State earlier this year through its sportsbook app.
Michigan Next Stop for Online Casinos
Michigan will be the next state to offer online casino gaming. Lawmakers there passed the Lawful Internet Gaming Act in December.
Currently, the state’s Gaming Control Board is developing rules for both online casinos and mobile sports betting. According to the GCB’s website, state officials expect to have the rules in place for iGaming, which would include online casinos and mobile sports betting, possibly by later this year.
Online gaming will be available statewide and through providers that have agreements in place with either the state-licensed commercial casinos or tribal casinos offering Class III gaming. Operators are allowed to offer up to two different brands. One for interactive poker and the other for casino-style gaming.
Last month, a state Senator from Detroit filed a bill that would allow the state-licensed casinos and the tribal casinos allowed to conduct Class III gaming to offer online gaming with a provisional license while the COVID-19 emergency was still in effect.
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