As state Lottery revenues continue to decline, hit by competing casinos in border states as well as the downturn in the state economy, one location appears to be bucking the trend, according to figures presented Tuesday to the Lottery Commission.
March revenue at the casino at The Greenbrier resort was up 48 percent over March 2015, at $442,000, with video lottery revenue of $329,426 up 89 percent over the previous March.
Year-to-date, the casino at The Greenbrier has gross revenue of $4.817 million, up more than 7 percent over the same point in the 2014-15 budget year. Year-to-date video lottery revenue of $3.3 million is up 11 percent over 2014-15.
By comparison, gross revenue for video lottery at the four racetrack casinos is down 3 percent year-to-date, at $402.35 million, while table games revenue at those casinos is down more than 7 percent, at $32.66 million.
John Myers, acting Lottery director, said the numbers may be attributable to new management at The Greenbrier casino.
"I'm going to give credit to the personnel," he said.
Erik Hastings, communications director for The Greenbrier, also credited changes made by Roy Corby, who became vice president for casino operations in December, for the upturn.
"Our new dance club, 42 Below, and new events such as 'Happy Hour Bingo' are extremely popular with our guests, and I believe have contributed to the overall success of the amenity," Hastings said of The Greenbrier casino.
"We pay especially close attention to the feedback we receive from our guests," he added. "Through their suggestions and our experience, the Casino Club is emerging as the place to be at night for guests of The Greenbrier."
Meanwhile, overall Lottery revenue for March was $99.99 million, down $2.25 million from March 2015.
Total year-to-date revenue, with three months remaining in the budget year, is $856.36 million, down $15.24 million from the same point in 2015.
The state's share of Lottery profits for March was $41.83 million, down $1.5 million from March 2015, and year-to-date profits of $369.74 million is down $15.5 million from fiscal 2014-15.
Also at the Lottery Commission Tuesday:
n Myers told the commission he will be hosting a town hall meeting on May 18 for Limited Video Lottery machine distributors and bar and club owners in Charleston to discuss the rollout of a new central computer system for all video lottery machines, effective Jan. 1, 2018.
The switchover has been a source of contention for LVL machine distributors and retailers, requiring them to replace or upgrade more than 7,000 LVL machines in order to be able to communicate with the new central computer, at an upgrade cost of $3,000 per machine to a replacement cost of more than $20,000 each.
As of March 31, 3,734 - or 53 percent - of all LVL machines have been upgraded to the new SAS protocol, Lottery Deputy Director Tacy Donovan said Tuesday.
n Commissioners approved the sale of one of the state's largest LVL machine distributors, Derrick Video of Charleston, to Joshua Collins, son-in-law of the late Jerry Derrick.
n Myers said the state Insurance Commission has completed its move to floors seven, eight and nine in the Lottery headquarters office tower.
Also, he said the building cafeteria, which was closed during renovation of those floors, will reopen on Monday with Jeremey Lucas as the new vendor. Lucas also currently operates the Capitol Food Court.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.