West Virginia casino revenue rebound threatened by COVID-19 surge, lottery warns

West Virginia Lottery officials have expressed their concern that the ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases could “hurt business” at the state’s 5 casinos, just as casino revenue is showing signs of rebounding. 

As Lottery Director John Myers stated on Wednesday, “we are all concerned” of the potential for the surge to cause a downturn in casino attendance and revenue. Myers said the surge “hasn’t affected the state’s casino so far”, however, they “know that is always a possibility”. 

He also assured that public health protocols will return to casinos if necessary. “Hopefully, we’d be able to react quicker than before, because we’ve gone through it once before,” he said.

For July, West Virginia’s four racetrack casinos took in $43.87 million on video lottery and $3.25 million from table games.

For the first time since the pandemic started, racetrack video lottery grossed more for the month than Limited Video Lottery at bars and clubs. LVL took in $42.09 million for the month, down from March and April, when numbers topped $50 million each month.

The Greenbrier resort’s casino took in $970,000 for the month, up 62% from June. Overall for July of this year, the Lottery grossed $111.88 million, up $6.4 million from June. The state’s share of Lottery profits for July was $49.79 million, up $360,000 from the previous month.

“Based on July numbers, we could see an extra $100 million this year over last year,” said Myers.