CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Lottery is finding its frontier at Walmart.
After announcing a few weeks ago that automated lottery machines would appear in Walmart Supercenter locations in West Virginia for the first time, the rollout is well under way.
“It’s all about making Lottery relevant,” said Kayla Brown Giordano, deputy director of marketing for West Virginia Lottery.
“You have to have the exposure, the availability of the product and also secure that integrity. They have what we need. They have the volume and traffic counts.”
Thirty-one stores are now live and selling traditional lottery products, Giordano said. Five more stores in West Virginia will go live following the holiday season, she said.
That’s in addition to all the Walmart fuel centers selling lottery products.
Those include scratch off tickets and draw games that include Powerball, Mega Millions, Daily 3, Daily 4 and Cash 25
The move to get Walmart going with lottery games took place from Sept. 30 to Oct. 17. But discussions between Walmart and Lottery began in 2014.
Customers will typically find lottery products up front in the stores, but the displays are not meant to appear dominant. The machines are smaller than player-operated machines at other locations.
“Their placement varies, but typically it is near your self-checkouts,” Giordano said.
Walmart had avoided selling lottery products across the country until 2011 when the mega chain decided to try selling in Florida stores. Since then, the Walmart has expanded to additional states and now West Virginia.
For West Virginia, Giordano said, the expansion to Walmart means “long-term incremental growth.”