The West Virginia Lottery Commission recently posted results for July for the first four week of its online casino, sports betting, lottery, video lottery, casinos and racinos.
Bettors placed wagers of $37.2 million during the first four weeks the state’s online casino was legal. The DraftKings casino app debuted on July 15, in partnership with Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. The state gained $824,639 in revenue, according to the
West Virginia Lottery Commission. West Virginia is the third state in which DraftKings has launched a standalone casino app, following New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
However, Roar, owned by MGM Resorts International, recently launched West Virginia’s second online casino platform in partnership with the Greenbrier casino.
In the first four days of the launch, players bet $6.9 million; that increased to $9.4 million for July 19 through July 25. The most lucrative week was July 26 through August 1, with wagerers staking $12.2 million. Players bet $8.6 million in the week ending August 8. Despite a drop in money wagered, that last week was the best in terms of revenue, with $271,494 , the highest 7-day total for the period.
The West Virginia legislature passed online casino gambling in March 2019 and the legislation passed into law without Governor Jim Justice’s signature. The launch was delayed since sports betting had just kicked off. For the 2021 fiscal year which began July 1, until July 31, sports betting took in wagers of $22.8 million and revenue of $2 million. Mobile betting accounted for $15.5 million of the stakes, with $7.3 million for retail and $1.1 million in revenue. In comparison, during the 2020 fiscal year, ending June 30, players bet $275.3 million, producing revenue of $19.1 million.
Lottery Director John Myers announced sports wagering has resumed onsite at Mardi Gras Casino and Wheeling Island Casino and on mobile sports betting apps. The two casinos shut down sports betting in March 2019 in a legal dispute with owner Delaware North’s sports wagering platform provider. Myers said plan are to relaunch on-site Sportsbooks and mobile wagering apps simultaneously.
The West Virginia Lottery reported gross revenue of $93.9 million in July, surpassing July 2019 by $877,000. Near-record play of Limited Video Lottery in bars and clubs around the state accounted for most of that total, July gross LVL revenue of $39.82 million, beating July 2019 revenue by $7.2 million, a 22 percent increase. Observers said the strong performance of LVL reflects pent-up demand, since the machines were shut down March 18 through May 30 under the statewide Covid-19 stay-at-home order. June LVL revenue also came in high, rising 27 percent to $40.88 million compared to June 2019.
Traditional scratch-off and online tickets racked up $19.43 million in revenue in July, an increase of $4 million over July 2019. That helped offset a drop in casino revenue, with racetrack video lottery revenue of $31.79 million in July, a decline of $10 million, or 25 percent, compared to July 2019. Table game revenue also fell 25 percent in July, with revenue of $1.8 million.
The state’s four racinos are operating at reduced capacity with restricted hours. At a recent meeting of the lottery commission, Lottery Deputy Director David Bradley said they have not returned to 24-hour operations.
However, at the Greenbrier resort, video slot revenue rose 14 percent to $391,926 compared to July 2019, and table games skyrocketed 300 percent to $430,000 compared to July 2019.
