CHARLESTON — West Virginians are one step closer to placing wagers on poker and other games through their smartphones.

House Bill 2934 passed the Senate on Friday with a vote of 26-7. The measure would allow the state’s four licensed racetracks and the Greenbrier Resort to offer “interactive wagering” games through the use of electronic devices such as smarphones, computers or tablets.

Senate members Friday made slight changes to the bill by adding two amendments, then sending it back to the House for concurrance.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said the first amendment made a grammatical change throughout the bill, correcting references to “a interactive device” to “an interactive device.” This amendment also extended the time the West Virginia Lottery Commission has to enact emergency rules pertaining to interactive wagering from Dec. 1 to July 1, 2020.

The second amendment approved was proposed by Sen. Richard Lindsay, D-Kanawha. It would set aside a portion of the state tax collected from interactive wagering for casino employee pension plans.

Under the bill, the state would receive 15 percent of the gross deposits from interactive gaming. Lindsay’s amendment instead would give the state 14.75 percent, directing the other 0.25 percent to the employee pension plans.

As of late Friday evening, the House had not acted on the Senate’s changes.

The West Virginia Legislature’s regular 2019 session concludes at midnight tonight.

HB 2934 defines interactive wagering as “the placing of wagers remotely and in real time on any authorized interactive game with any interactive gaming provider, using any communications technology, by means of any electronic or mobile device or other interface capable of providing a means of input and output.”

The legislation does not include forms of interactive wagering associated with gaming already approved by the Legislature. Among these are pari-mutuel betting on horse and dog races, West Virginia Lottery games, racetrack video lottery, limited video lottery, racetrack table games and sports wagering.