WEST VIRGINIA LOTTERY SUMMARY


The preliminary review of the West Virginia Lottery was performed to evaluate the lottery's revenues in comparison with lottery systems of other states or districts. The average percentage increase/decrease in annual per capita revenues since fiscal year 1986, or since the inception of the game, was compared with other systems on a per game basis. West Virginia operates three different styles of games:

On-line games are played by purchasing a ticket from a licensed sales agents of the lottery which has numbers on it that the player selects, (i.e. 123, for the 3 digit game). The lottery then has a random drawing at a predetermined time to determine a winner which will have a ticket with the numbers that match the numbers randomly selected.

Instant games are played by scratching the latex covering off the play area on the ticket. The play symbols revealed determine whether the ticket is a winner by matching 3 digits or beating a corresponding number. There is a wide variety of themes to instant games and different ways to win with each.

Video Lottery is a lottery game which is available at licensed racetracks sanctioned by local referendum. It is a keyboard operated video screen which the player wins credits by betting on the results of the game for replay or cash.

Our evaluation compared five different on-line games. The ranking of the West Virginia Lottery within the different systems is as follows:

On-Line


Game
Average Annual % Increase in Per Capita Revenues

Rank
3-digit19.92%6 of 16
4-digit20.83%2 of 14
Lotto3.38%18 of 27
Powerball49.05%5 of 11
Keno6.37%7 of 12

The on-line games of the West Virginia Lottery when put in percentage form and averaged, indicates performance better than 55% of the systems compared.

The percentage increase or decrease in revenues and ranking for instant games is reported below:

Instant Games


Game Style
Average Annual %
Increase in Per Capita Revenues


Rank
Scratch-off6.96%17 of 27

The video lottery was compared with four other video lottery systems. The ranking of the lottery within these five systems is as follows:

Video Lottery
Average Annual % Increase in Per Capita Revenues

Rank
121.94%3 of 5

West Virginia Lottery's per capita revenues of their games have shown an increase since their inception. Therefore, the Legislative Auditor's Performance Evaluation and Research Division concludes that the West Virginia Lottery is performing at least average, and sometimes above average when compared to other systems.