CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Lottery Commission has agreed in principle to allow owners of the Wheeling Island Casino to operate electronic table games.
Wheeling is looking at other ways to generate revenue and cut costs at the northern panhandle facility, which owners claim has been hard hit by out-of-state gambling competition.
State Lottery Director John Musgrave told MetroNews the commission won’t give final approval until it reviews a presentation by the casino on June 14 and receives clearance from the state Lottery’s certification group, Gaming Labs International.
“If all of those hurdles are cleared, the commission felt it could possibly act favorably on a request,” Musgrave said.
Wheeling Island has been considering whether to reapply for the annual $2.5 million table games license from the state. Musgrave said the preliminary approval of electronic table games may be the tipping point.
“The folks from Wheeling felt this would possibly go a long way to helping them make a positive decision to invest the $2.5 million,” Musgrave said.
Table games are labor-intensive and Musgrave said allowing electronic table games could create more streams of revenue and allow Wheeling Island to close some of its traditional table games during the casino’s non-peak hours.
“Instead of maybe keeping the folks on board just to deal a game to a few people that just happen to be playing, they will offer these electronic games,” Musgrave said.
The new games at Wheeling wouldn’t use a live dealer and would use virtual chips.
Musgrave said Wheeling Island would keep its traditional table games but electronic games would give it more options for revenue. He said the lottery commission would also be favorable to similar requests from the other casinos in the state.
“The commission is trying to help Wheeling where we can, but we’re making the same opportunity available to other facilities,” he said.
The electronic table games issue was discussed extensively during the commission’s meeting last Friday at the casino in Charles Town.