CHARLESTON, WV -- The West Virginia Lottery has accomplished its transition to new Limited Video Lottery licenses without major system downtime or significant loss of tax revenue, said WVL director John Musgrave.
The new license system took effect at 3 a.m. on July 1, replacing the earlier licenses that had been in effect from the lottery's launch in 2001. At that point, all unlicensed video lottery terminals went offline. Just over 6,800 VLTs were in operation under the new licenses as of July 6, officials said.
Despite Musgrave's upbeat report, there have been conflicts. The West Virginia Amusement and Video Lottery Association sued the state lottery in August 2010, charging that the new licensing procedures were unfair. That lawsuit was dropped a few weeks later at the request of both parties. | SEE STORY
At least one operating company is suing the lottery over a licensing dispute. The plaintiff, Wheeling Coin, is run by Anthony "Herk" Sparachane, who is also president of the WVAVLA.
Sparachane told the Charleston Gazette that many locations are still without VLTs under the new system and as a result location owners are "desperate" for VLT revenues.
