Adding Table Games to Slot Machines Won’t Help West Virginia

West Virginia has long had a good run with the slot machines, in fact, they brought in a large chunk of the $1.5 billion that came in last year from the lottery. However, their slot machines have done so well that their neighboring states have taken a good hard long look at what West Virginia is doing, and decided that they want slot machines as well. This does not bode well for West Virginia, as many of the people coming to play the slot machines are coming from their neighboring states.

Pennsylvania is bringing in 61,000 slot machines, 5,000 of them at the Majestic Star in downtown Pittsburgh. This will take plenty of slot machine revenue from the Mountaineer and Wheeling Island racinos. Lottery officials are already saying that they expect slot machine revenue to drop by $30 million this year, and $60 million the following year. So now government officials are saying that they might want to add table games to the slot machine games, and everyone is looking for their piece of the pie.

Some of those within WV think it is a terrific idea to bring in table games, because if the racetracks get them in addition to their slot machines, then everyone who has slot machines now should be able to add table games as well. Those that didn’t really want the slot machines in the first place think it is a terrible idea, as originally slot machines were only supposed to be for the racetracks and now they are everywhere. They are concerned that table games will become as ubiquitous as the slot machines are now. They think that those in the government should start cutting spending instead of adding table games to the mix.

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