Revenue at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia dropped 44 percent to 1,000 last month compared to 2,000 in July 2015, due to a two-week shutdown caused by the June 23 flood. The resort also had to cancel its PGA Tour Greenbrier Classic golf tournament, which attracts thousands of fans to the Greenbrier each year, because of the flood.
However, total lottery revenue increased to $98.8 million, up $1 million over July 2015, because of large Powerball and MegaMillions jackpots. The Powerball jackpot hit $487 million in July before the winning ticket was sold.
Acting Lottery Director John Myers said, “Fortunately, we had one product that was selling better because of those big jackpots, while others were down because of the flooding. So in this case, they offset. Of course, we’re going to miss several hundred thousand dollars, no matter how you look at it. But since it’s a smaller facility, it didn’t have a big impact on our overall numbers.”
Online games brought in $9.1 million for July, up 67 percent over July 2015. Lottery spokesman Randy Burnside said, “That product more than made up the difference. Year to year, we’re actually up a bit.”
Available in 1,355 venues across the state, video lottery game revenue fell $2.2 million from to $28.6 million in July 2015. Very few clubs and retailers closed after the flood and those reopened after a few days, Myers said. “It could have been much worse. We were pretty fortunate,” he added.
Racetrack video lottery remained steady at $48.9 million for July. Scratch-off games decreased slightly to $7.8 million in revenue.
