West Virginia lawmakers took a big step forward in protecting athletes and other parties involved in sports events from harassment tied to legal sports betting.
The House of Delegates used the final day of legislative crossover to pass HB 4700, which amends the state’s sports betting law to allow the West Virginia Lottery to ban “persons from sports betting who have harassed or shown a harmful pattern of conduct directed at any person involved in a sporting event,” the bill reads.
The amendment gives the lottery commission the authority to determine if a person poses a threat to “patrons or participants in a sports event” or determines there’s a “pattern of conduct of harassing a sports official, coach, or any participants.”
Complaints by any sporting event participant will be investigated by the commission, and if a person is banned, they are entitled to a hearing with the commission.
Delegate Shawn Fluharty (D-Ohio), who’s also the president of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, attempted to get this measure passed last year but failed. He introduced HB 4700 on Jan. 15 and was first read earlier this month.
Similar measures
West Virginia sports betting, which allows nine online sportsbooks and a handful of retail operators, isn’t the first state to take measures against sports betting harassment. The Mountaineer State’s legislative efforts are similar to a provision in Ohio.
The harassment of athletes has recently been notable at the collegiate level. The Ohio Casino Control Commission decided this week to prohibit sportsbook operators from offering college player prop bets, citing harassment and pressure from the NCAA, college sports’ governing body, to help curb the issue.
“The NCAA has shown good cause to support its request to prohibit player-specific prop bets on NCAA collegiate events in Ohio,” OCCC executive director Matthew Schuler wrote. “While I recognize that there may be a small negative impact to operator and tax revenue, the protection of student-athletes and the integrity of collegiate competitions far outweigh these impacts.”
