The West Virginia Lottery Commission is continuing its investigation into separate incidents of video lottery machine tampering.
The commission heard information on both situations at its Tuesday meeting in Charleston. It decided it wants to gather more information and hear directly from the technicians involved before making final decisions.
Both Kelly’s Hot Spot II in Dunbar and Shaffer Amusement Company in Clarksburg had machines where technicians bypassed a switch when making repairs. At Kelly’s Hot Spot three machines were impacted. Shaffer Amusement technicians changed 10 video lottery machines.
Lottery Commission Chairman Ken Greear says the cases are very serious and could result in fines or the revocation of licenses.
“There are safeguards that are in place and they are there for a purpose,” Greear said. “For someone to bypass those and do it repeatedly is an extraordinary serious offense.”
Jumping the switch in the machines can put the cash box at risk. Each limited video lottery machine is connected to the state Lottery’s central computer system.
Chairman Greear says the integrity of the Lottery is one of the most significant items the Lottery Commission looks at.
“So the public has confidence in what they’re working with. That it’s a fair game and it’s one that meets their expectations and that of the state,” he said.
Neither those in charge at Shaffer Amusement nor at Kelly’s Hot Spot had a full explanation as to why the technicians would take the step of rigging the machines. Greear says that’s why they want to speak with the technicians.
“We want to make sure that we have all of the information available to use before we render some type of action in the way of reprimand for the circumstances that have been presented to us,” Greear said.
The chairman says he can’t overstress the seriousness of what happened and how important integrity is to the West Virginia Lottery.
“That process is put into place so that we know who has access to that area of the machine and why. And we want to know that to ensure the game’s integrity is maintained,” Greear said.
Both license holders have pledged their full cooperation with the Lottery Commission in its ongoing investigations.
The Lottery Commission is set to meet again April 25.