John Musgrave, the Director of Lottery in West Virginia, stated that the competition from Pennsylvania in gambling has not affected the lottery has they had feared. Pennsylvania video slot parlors have taken away business from the West Virginia Lottery but they are still making good revenue.

In the 2007-08 budget year for West Virginia, the lottery revenue was $510.4 million. It’s down $18.8 million from last year but still a good figure. “We’re down from last year, but that was expected,” Musgrave said. They thought the revenue would be down around 10 to 13 % but they have only seen a dip of around 3.6%.

The biggest hit the state has seen is two racetracks, Mountaineer and Wheeling Downs in the Northern Panhandle. They will be opening a casino next month. This past October the racetracks opened 57 poker tables because legislation was passed so they could do so. The end of December will see the casino testing several games including blackjack, roulette, craps and others. If the tests go well the tracks will be full casino operating by December 20th. By this time the revenues should be up and the state seeing good returns. The tracks have also started having video slot machines available 24 hours a day.


- 2007-11-29