\u201cI really believe that we need to bring [the leagues] under the umbrella for the amount of the fee that they wanted, or we negotiated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted a percent, we negotiated to a quarter of a percent and if we can get them to sign on for that and everything and bring them under the umbrella, I think that\u2019s very, very minimal cost to the casinos, and I think it would be a good thing.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe leagues\u2019 initial demand of one percent of betting handle would have translated into an onerous 20 to 25 percent tax on sports books\u2019 gross gaming revenue. But draft bills doing the rounds in New York, Kansas and Connecticut that propose a .25 percent fee suggest the leagues may have compromised behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
The claim, however, that Justice has somehow negotiated the leagues \u201cdown\u201d on the integrity fee is dubious, as Legal Sports Report<\/em> pointed out this week. Since West Virginia already passed a bill with zero integrity fee, all negotiations are now clearly taking an upwards trajectory \u2013 with no discernible benefit to the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Virginia Governor Jim Justice plans to call a special session to review the state\u2019s recently passed sports betting bill. It seems the sports leagues have been bending the governor\u2019s ear. Justice said Friday he supports tweaking the new law to include the so-called \u201cintegrity fee\u201d \u2013 \u00a0a cut of all wagers in a future […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":77055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,61,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
West Virginia Governor in League with the Leagues on Sports Betting<\/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