West Virginia Gaming & Racing Association President John Cavacini said that talk of "changing the emergency sports betting rules to require casinos to pay major sports leagues to use the leagues' official data is just an integrity fee, but by another name," according to Jake Jarvis of WVNEWS.com. Time is "running out on a series of emergency rules meant to allow sports betting to run during the fall football season, and Cavacini warned that the casinos could consider taking legal action if the rules are changed in ways they feel don't represent the legislative intent of sports betting." Cavacini: "It's absolutely the same as integrity fees. It's a money grab by major league sports to try to confiscate from casinos, or the state of West Virginia or somebody." Cavacini "believes there is a 'basic, philosophical difference'" between what West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice "wants and what Lottery officials want" (WVNEWS.com, 9/30).
TUTORIAL NEEDED: In Las Vegas, Richard Velotta wrote the NFL last week "demonstrated that there's still a lot of work to be done to educate league leaders -- and representatives of Congress -- on how sports betting works." The testimony presented Thursday by NFL Exec VP/Communications & Public Affairs Jocelyn Moore to a House Judiciary subcommittee "shows the league still doesn't seem to get that a system that has flourished in Nevada for decades doesn't need any federal help to make it better" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 9/30).
