The West Virginia Lottery expects to finish the fiscal year with total revenue of approximately $1.25bn, according to WV MetroNews.
John Myers, the lottery’s Director, has made the prediction after the second of two ‘strong’ years following the forced lockdowns in FY2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020 was the only time the $1bn mark wasn’t reached in more than a dozen years, but that figure was surpassed in April this year with two months remaining of FY2022.
Myers’ team reported May revenue numbers to members of the state Lottery Commission at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, ahead of the fiscal year’s final day today (June 30).
In May, total gambling revenues came in at $106.8m which included significant contributions from Racetrack Video Lottery ($41.3m) and Limited Video Lottery ($41.2m), the latter of which was the ninth highest monthly amount for LVLs.
Meanwhile, revenues from community slot machines bounced back much quicker than slot machines at the casinos across the state once gambling locations reopened following the pandemic.
Myers said he’s starting to see a change in the last few months.
“Actually last week the racetracks had one of their better weeks than they’ve had in a long time,” he said.
“The casinos actually outperformed LVLs.”
Wednesday’s session also included the commission’s annual relicensing meeting, where LVL and RVL operations were among those to be relicensed.
The Lottery Commission’s next meeting is scheduled for July 27.
