There are several hurdles to clear before a West Virginia casino might receive authorization to expand its gaming operations off of its originally licensed premise.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 100 must first gain majority support in both legislative chambers. If that happens, counties home to the five casinos would need to host local ballot referendums asking voters to allow satellite gaming properties.<\/p>\n
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The remaining steps following the state and local county endorsing a satellite would be for the West Virginia Lottery Commission to sign off on the project and issue the business a satellite gaming concession. Finally, the casino would need to reach a lease agreement with a tenant willing to allow gaming operations inside its property. Hull Property Group in Georgia acquired the Town Center Mall last year for just $3 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Nelson’s statute would allow only one satellite in each county. West Virginia’s five casinos reside in separate counties.<\/p>\n
Each mini-casino would be permitted to house slot machines and table games, sports betting, and pari-mutuel wagering on simulcast racing.<\/p>\n
Casinos to the Rescue<\/b><\/h2>\n
Pennsylvania lawmakers spearheaded the concept of satellite casinos in 2017 under the state’s major expansion of gambling. But West Virginia’s neighbor did so in a different manner.<\/p>\n
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Instead of county referendums, Pennsylvania first allowed townships and municipalities to opt-out of being considered for a mini-casino. Once the pool of potential host sites was narrowed down, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board held a series of satellite casino auction rounds. The high bid of the sealed proposals won the right to secure a 15-mile radius to build a satellite gaming facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Pennsylvania held five successful auction rounds before interest waned. Three have since opened<\/a> — Hollywood Casino York, Live! Casino Pittsburgh, and Hollywood Casino Morgantown. The York and Pittsburgh satellites have taken the place of vacant mall anchor stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Virginia casinos would be afforded satellite gaming location opportunities under new legislation that is making progress in the state legislature. Senate Bill 100 was introduced last month by state Sen. Eric Nelson (R-Kanawha). The statute seeks to allow the state’s five commercial casinos to open satellites — smaller brick-and-mortar casinos — so long as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":202712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
West Virginia Casino Satellite Bill Advances, Could Save Charleston Mall<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n