The increased sales of Limited Video Lottery in West Virginia for the last two months offset the decline in Lottery sales at the state’s racetracks, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.
This slowed but did not stop the overall decline in state Lottery profits, so that in October total sales were $87.2 million, a 1 percent fall from the year before.
This resulted from an 11 percent increase in traditional Lottery sales from the year before, which may be the result of the introduction earlier this year of the “You Never Know” advertising campaign which employed such symbols as flying pigs and a blue moon.
Another factor in increased sales may have been the law that took effect this summer that increased the number of Lottery machines that bars are allowed to have from five to seven.
This contrasted with a decline in VLT and table game revenues at West Virginia’s four racetracks, where VLT revenues of $40.9 million were 6 percent lower than in 2016 and table game revenues were $2.8 million, or 17 percent lower.
