America’s brief flirtation with election betting appears all but dead as West Virginia’s governor says he won’t allow such nefarious activity in his state.
West Virginia made national headlines on Tuesday after locally licensed sports betting operator FanDuel briefly posted betting lines on the 2020 US presidential election. However, the lines were withdrawn almost immediately thereafter amid major confusion over whether these markets had been expressly authorized.
FanDuel stated that the West Virginia Lottery, which regulates the state’s gambling operators, had approved election betting but had since asked FanDuel to “refrain from offering the markets until they have time to fully work through the implications of this new market offering.”
On Wednesday, the state’s senior politicians suggested there was nothing to work out. The WV Metro News quoted Secretary of State Mac Warner said election betting was “a terrible idea” that had been approved by “somebody getting overly excited about an opportunity without considering state law or consulting the proper people.”
The state’s laws contain language stating that it’s illegal “to bet or wager money or anything of value on any election held in this state.” FanDuel tried to claim that avoiding “local or state elections” was a sufficient dodge of this law, but this argument appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Governor Jim Justice, whose Greenbrier Resort has a FanDuel-powered sportsbook onsite, said he initially “though [the idea of election betting] was humorous” before dismissing the notion and moving on to more pressing items. However, Justice (pictured) later claimed that “the very second I found about it, I disapproved it because we’re not going to do that.”
Election betting has proven wildly popular in other jurisdictions, particularly in the UK, where events such as US races and UK referendums have been big hits with local bettors. Previous US efforts to launch election betting markets have fallen short at both the state and federal level.
Ironically, Wednesday saw Sen. Bernie Sanders suspend his campaign to become the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, the outcome of which had been one of the markets FanDuel had briefly offered on Tuesday.
