The West Virginia State Lottery has been losing money for about three consecutive fiscal years now. Well, it looks like that bad break finally ended as the lottery’s revenues have increased significantly just before the completion of the 2010-2011 budget year. Traditional instant win scratch games and Charles Town’s Hollywood Casino have helped the lottery’s revenue increase by about 3 percent, which brought the entire proceedings to $1.38 billion. Mega lottery
Things are picking up, it looks like, a little bit,” John Musgrave, Lottery Director, stated in front of the lottery commission. The state of West Virginia will receive $615.38 million from the lottery’s profits. That represents an increase from last year of about $10 million. It’s the first time the lottery’s profits have been going up since the 2006-2007 budget year, when the lottery reported a record for the state’s share of the profits ($640 million). Powerball lottery
The figures do not include the $68.67 the lottery received after bidding for 7,500 10 year video lottery licenses. Ken Greear, the Lottery Commission’s Chairman, said that the numbers are remarkable, especially when considering the weakness of the national economy and the intense competition from Maryland and Pennsylvania gaming complexes and casinos. Table game total revenue has increased exponentially since these particular games were introduced at Charles Town. $31.7 million was the sum for last year, while this year, the lottery took in more than $68 million. US lottery
Just a few months ago, in June, Charles Town’s table games raised $12.15 million. That’s just in one month. Also, that’s 2 times as much as the state’s other 4 casinos managed to raise. Scratch games have also increased considerably since last year. The total scratch games revenue was $115.69 million, which means the sum has increased by $18.21 million. Nikki Orcutt, the marketing director at the West Virginia State Lottery, said that she thinks the massive increase in revenue came because of the promotion of the lottery’s new 25th anniversary game, which offered lottery tickets for $25.
Other than that, the Lottery Commission also considered the loosening of gambling laws and some lottery locations may be allowed to serve meals. The lottery laws from 2001 are extremely strict, so it will be great if the commission manages to change them.
That’s about it on the matter for now. Join us again soon if you want to learn more news from the world of lotteries.
