The West Virginia Lottery Commission has approved a change that will allow operators of limited video lottery machines to open up as early as 6 am.
Lottery Director John Myers told commission members that the change was to align the lottery’s regulation with the state‘s Alcohol Beverage Control Agency (ABCA) following the approval of House Bill 2025, which will increase the hours in which alcohol can be sold.
Myers commented: “Our law says we can operate only during the hours they can sell alcohol. This would align the lottery’s hours of operation with those of the ABCA.”
The legislation will come into effect on May 10 and the video lottery change was approved unanimously by the commission. Local ordinances might impact those operations on Sunday.
“Counties have the ability to do a referendum which would modify the change on Sundays to begin at 1 pm and not allow a 6 am start on Sunday,” Myers stated.
He added that even though operators will soon be able to open at 6 am for gambling, there’s nothing to compel them to do so.