Introduction to West Virginia Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2019
Live Horse Racing Simulcast and Replays Watch today's horse races LIVE from Charles Town Races or catch replays of past races from the comfort of your own home or on the go with the Hollywood races video player. Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort - 1420 Mountaineer Cir, New Cumberland, West Virginia 26047 - Rated 4.1 based on 3,027 Reviews 'Never again will. Noon to Midnight 7 days a week in the off-track betting (OTB) area of the casino. 5pm to 11pm Sunday thru Wednesday Track side (During Live Racing). Monthly Simulcast Schedule. STAKES SCHEDULE The 2020 Stakes for Mountaineer Racetrack will be available by February 2020. Horse race betting site. Availability 7 Days a Week Opens Daily at 9:00 am (ET) Closes Daily at 12:00 am (ET).
West Virginia slot machine casino gambling consists of five casinos including one casino resort and four pari-mutuel wagering facilities with slot machines. Bars, restaurants, and fraternal organizations may have up to ten video lottery terminals (VLTs).
This post continues the weekly series Online Resource: A State-By-State Slot Machine Casino Gambling Series, an online resource dedicated to guiding slot machine casino gambling enthusiasts to success. Each weekly post reviews slots gambling in a single U.S. state, territory, or the federal district.
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Relevant Legal Statutes on Gambling in West Virginia*
The minimum legal gambling age in West Virginia depends upon the gambling activity:
Mountaineer Race Trace And Casino Play For Fun Slots Games
- Land-Based Casinos: 21
- Poker Rooms: 21
- Bingo: 18
- Lottery: 18
- Pari-Mutuel Wagering: 21
In 1994, West Virginia legalized video lottery terminals at their thoroughbred and greyhound racetracks. Machine restrictions at these pari-mutuel wagering facilities include approval by the local county and having:
- Slots
- Blackjack
- Keno
- Many versions of poker
In 1999, West Virginia began allowing physical reel slot machines at licensed racetrack racinos.
In 2001, West Virginia passed a bill allowing these VLTs in bars, restaurants, and fraternal organizations. Bars and restaurants can have up to five VLTs and fraternal organizations up to ten VLTs. The Limited Video Lottery Act also imposed the state total of VLTs to 9,000 electronic gaming machines.
*The purpose of this section is to inform the public of state gambling laws and how the laws apply to various forms of gambling. This information is not intended to provide legal advice.
Slot Machine Private Ownership in West Virginia
It is legal to own a slot machine in West Virginia privately.
Gaming Control Board in West Virginia
The West Virginia Lottery Commission controls all VLT gaming regulations. After a 67% voter approval, the West Virginia Lottery was created in 1984 with Article VI, section 36 in the Constitution of West Virginia.
Afterward, West Virginia legalized VLTs with subsequent amendments, acts, rules, and statutes. Each of these statutes is available at the West Virginia Lottery’s Rules and Regulations.
Casinos in West Virginia
There are four pari-mutuel racetracks and one casino resort with slot machines in West Virginia.
In mid-2018, these casinos had a total of 5,841 gaming machines available for playing 18 different games. Another 1,470 retail locations with five to ten VLTs have a variety of eleven games.
The largest casino in West Virginia is Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races having more than 2,500 gaming machines and 98 table games including a 16-table poker room.
The second largest casino is Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort having 1,525 gaming machines and 36 table games.
List of Casinos in West Virginia
The five casinos in West Virginia are:
- The Casino Club at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs is a casino resort located 120 miles southeast of Charleston.
- Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in Charles Town is a horse racing racino located 320 miles northeast of Charleston
- Mardi Gras Casino & Resort in Cross Lanes is a dog racing racino located 10 miles northwest of Charleston
- Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort in New Cumberland is a horse racing racino located 35 miles north of Wheeling
- Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack in Wheeling is a dog racing racino
List of Tribal Casinos in West Virginia
West Virginia has no federally-recognized tribes and, therefore, no tribal casinos.
Other Gambling Establishments
As an alternative to enjoying West Virginia slot machine casino gambling, consider exploring casino options in a nearby state. Bordering West Virginia is:
- North: Maryland Slots and Pennsylvania Slots
- East and South: Virginia Slots
- West: Kentucky Slots and Ohio Slots
Each of the links above will take you to my state-specific blog for that neighboring state to West Virginia.
Payout Returns in West Virginia
West Virginia has two sets of payout limits. For racetrack racinos and the casino resort, the limits are 80% and 99.9%.
For the non-casino environment such as bars, restaurants, and fraternal organizations, these limits are 80% and 95%.
Further, the five to ten VLTs allowed at non-casino environments must obtain individual permissions to have a greater than 92% payout return. These so-called high payout terminals must twice obtain Commission approval including:
- Written consent prior to manufacturing
- Approval before applying for testing
The annual actual payout return percentage for all casinos in West Virginia was 92.92% in 2018 per the Commission’s Financial Reports under the News and Info –> Information tab at the West Virginia Lottery.
The West Virginia entry from the American Casino Guide’s slots payback statistics offers further payout return statistics by casino facility. However, these values are not reported online by the state.
Our West Virginia Slots Facebook Group
Are you interested in sharing and learning with other slots enthusiasts in West Virginia? If so, join our new West Virginia slots community on Facebook. All you’ll need is a Facebook profile to freely join this closed Facebook Group.
There, you’ll be able to privately share your slots experiences as well as chat with players about slots gambling in or near West Virginia. Come join us!
Summary of West Virginia Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2019
West Virginia slot machine casino gambling consists of one casino resort, four dog or horse racetrack racinos, and 1,470 retailers. The four casinos may have gaming machines with up to 18 different games as well as slots with physical reels. Retailers may have five or ten video lottery terminals with as many as 11 different games.
Payout return limits are different for casinos versus retailers, although both have an identical minimum payout return limit of 80%. Casinos have a 99.9% maximum payout return limit.
However, retailers have a 95% maximum payout return limit with restrictions. Multiple Commission approvals are required for machines with a greater than 92% payout return limit.
Annual Progress in West Virginia Slot Machine Casino Gambling
Over the last year, there has been little change in the West Virginia gaming industry.
Archive: West Virginia Slot Machine Casino Gambling in 2018
Other State-By-State Articles from Professor Slots
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Have fun, be safe, and make good choices!
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC
By Jon H. Friedl, Jr. Ph.D., President
Jon Friedl, LLC
Gene Bromberg
Poker players living in the Mid-Atlantic states haven't had many options if they wanted to sling some chips. Home games don't run 24/7, underground clubs are by nature secretive and hard to locate, and in both those cases you have to worry about whether the game was crooked or if cops (or robbers) might saunter through the door. And unless you were up for a seven-hour jaunt to Niagara Falls or Atlantic City, playing in a true casino card room was out of the question.
That is, until October 19th rolled around. With Pennsylvania recently approving the construction of slots-only casinos across the state, West Virginia decided their casinos needed to offer customers a reason to keep coming across the border. With surprising speed, the West Virginia Legislature approved a motion to allow local referendums on introducing table games to existing casinos, and on June 30th Hancock County voters approved their referendum on the matter. And so, less than four months later, Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort opened their poker room to the public.
For the poker-starved masses Mountaineer's huge room will seem like — with apologies to the late John Denver — almost heaven. Mountaineer spent $1.2 million renovating their grandstand area and turning it into a 9,900-square-foot card room. That's plenty of space to comfortably host 37 poker tables, with seven of those tables split off for a separate high-stakes section. There's a bar just a few feet beyond the rail where you can get a drink and a bite to eat, and there are plasma TVs throughout the room showing sports and updated seating and game lists.
The smallest game at Mountaineer is $2/4 limit, and the biggest (at least during my visits) was $10-25 no-limit. The most popular game by far was $1/2 no-limit, but for those who enjoy games other than hold'em there were stud and Omaha games running, and even a $3/6 Omaha-8 table. And there are plans to introduce tournaments and sit-'n'-goes to the roster in the coming months.
I visited Mountaineer three times during its first month of operations, and while you can usually get a seat quickly on a weekday afternoon, things get much more crowded in the evening. Show up on a Saturday night and you're probably going to have a bit of a wait before you land a seat, and chances are future crowds will only grow larger. Neither Mountaineer nor Wheeling Downs (the other West Virginia poker room that opened in October) was allowed to advertise until the West Virginia Lottery gave their approval to open for business, but articles in a few local newspapers and word-of-mouth was enough to draw a big crowd. Now, both casinos are actively promoting their new rooms, and Mountaineer has enjoyed such a great return from poker that they're already planning to add four more tables.
As you might expect from a poker room in a state that just legalized the game, there were some issues early on. The dealers struggled a bit when the room first opened, but after just a month in the box the improvement has been striking. The floorpersons and other staff are very friendly and helpful and handle problems quickly and professionally. Empty seats sometimes took a long time to fill, but that may be due in part to the massive crowds that have packed the room.
The biggest improvement to Mountaineer's poker room was a recent change in the smoking policy. There was no smoking at the tables, of course, but when the room first opened you could smoke just outside the rail, and there were scores of people puffing away just over your shoulder, making the atmosphere more than a bit noxious. That's now been changed—smokers have to walk a good ways over to the racing simulcast area, which has made a vast improvement to the air quality.
The bathroom facilities near the tables are a bit limited, but that's improved as well, as players are now steered to additional facilities that are also located near the simulcast area. (Here's a tip: walk out of the poker room, hang a sharp left, and walk up the steps. There you'll find a small slots parlor, a restaurant…and a bathroom.) And while alcoholic drinks aren't free while you're playing, soft drinks and coffee are. (And here's another tip: order the cappuccino. It's pretty doggone good.).
If you aren't within driving distance of Mountaineer (of if you'd just like to stay for a few days and take it all in) the resort has a 359-room hotel, 3,200 slots, an 18-hole golf course, and live thoroughbred racing. And if you enjoy table games but poker isn't quite your style, all you need to do is wait until the first of the year, when Mountaineer will begin offering blackjack, roulette, craps and other games.
Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort
Route 2
Chester, West Virginia 26034
Phone: 1-800-80-40-HOT!
Route 2
Chester, West Virginia 26034
Phone: 1-800-80-40-HOT!
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