Senate Bill No. 418
(By Senator Boley )
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[Introduced March 19, 1993; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section nine, article twenty-two,
chapter twenty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
providing for county option elections to determine whether
video lottery games may be permitted in a county.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section nine, article twenty-two, chapter twenty-nine
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-
one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 22. STATE LOTTERY ACT.
§29-22-9. Initiation and operation of lottery; restrictions;
prohibited themes, games, machines or devices;
distinguishing numbers; winner selection; public drawings;
witnessing of results; testing and inspection of equipment;
price of tickets; claim for and payment of prizes; invalid,
counterfeit tickets; estimated prizes and odds of winning;
participant bound by lottery rules and validation
procedures;
security procedures; additional games;
electronic and computer systems.
(a) The commission shall initiate operation of the state
lottery on a continuous basis at the earliest feasible and
practical time, first initiating operation of the preprinted
instant winner type lottery. The lottery shall be initiated and
shall continue to be operated so as to produce the maximum amount
of net revenues to benefit the public purpose described in this
article consonant with the public good. Other state government
departments, boards, commissions, agencies and their officers
shall cooperate with the lottery commission so as to aid the
lottery commission in fulfilling these objectives.
(b) The commission shall promulgate rules and regulations
specifying the types of lottery games to be conducted by the
lottery:
Provided, That:
(1) Any county of this state may in an election held
especially for the purpose, determine whether video lottery games
shall be permitted within that county. The county commission
shall call a special "local option election" upon the filing of
a petition signed by not less than five percent of the qualified
voters within the county. The petition shall be in the following
form:
Petition for Local Option Election
We, the undersigned legally qualified voters, resident
within the county of
_______________, do hereby petition that a special election beheld within the county of __________________ on the ___________
day of __________________, 19____, upon the following question:
Shall video lottery games under the West Virginia lottery
commission be permitted in __________________?
Name Address Date
(Post office or street and number)
The county commission shall give notice of the special
"local option election" by publication thereof as a Class II-O
legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article
three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area
for such publication shall be the area in which the election is
to be held. The notice shall be published within fourteen
consecutive days next preceding the election. The election shall
be held not more than ninety nor less than sixty days from the
filing of the petition. Local option elections shall be
conducted within the county in the same manner provided for
general elections. A local option election may not be held
within sixty days of a primary, general or municipal election.
On the local option election ballot shall be printed the
following:
Shall video lottery games under the West Virginia lottery
commission be permitted in ..............?
[ ] Yes
[ ] No
(Place a cross mark in the square opposite your choice.)
The ballots shall be counted, returns made and canvassed asin general elections, and the results certified by the
commissioners of election to the county commission. The county
commission shall, without delay, certify the result of the
election to the commission.
Within thirty days after a "local option election" in which
a majority has voted "No," the commission shall close all video
lottery machines and remove them from the county.
When a local option election regarding video lottery games
has been held in a county, another local option election for the
same purpose shall not be held for a period of two years.
(1) (2) No lottery may use the results of any amateur or
professional sporting event, dog race or horse race to determine
the winner.
(2) (3) Electronic video lottery systems must include a
central site system of monitoring the lottery terminals utilizing
an on-line or dial-up inquiry.
(3) (4) In a lottery utilizing a ticket, each ticket shall
bear a unique number distinguishing it from each other ticket.
(4) (5) No lottery utilizing a machine may use machines
which dispense coins or currency.
(5) (6) Selection of the winner must be predicted totally on
chance.
(6) (7) Any drawings or winner selections shall be held in
public and witnessed by an independent accountant designated by
the director for such purposes.
(7) (8) All lottery equipment and materials shall beregularly inspected and tested, before and after any drawings or
winner selections, by independent qualified technicians.
(8) (9) The director shall establish the price for each
lottery and determine the method of selecting winners and the
manner of payment of prizes, including providing for payment by
the purchase of annuities for prizes payable in installments.
(9) (10) All claims for prizes shall be examined and no
prize shall be paid as a result of altered, stolen or counterfeit
tickets or materials, or which fail to meet validation rules or
regulations established for a lottery. No prize shall be paid
more than once, and, in the event of a binding determination by
the commission that more than one person is entitled to a
particular prize, the sole remedy of the claimants shall be the
award to each of them of an equal share in the single prize.
(10) (11) A detailed tabulation of the estimated number of
prizes of each particular prize denomination that are expected to
be awarded in each lottery, or the estimated odds of winning such
prizes shall be printed on any lottery ticket, where feasible, or
in descriptive materials, and shall be available at the offices
of the commission.
(11) (12) No prizes shall be paid which are invalid and not
contemplated by the prize structure of the lottery involved.
(12) (13) By purchasing a ticket or participation in a
lottery, a participant agrees to abide by, and be bound by, the
lottery rules which apply to the lottery or game play involved.
An abbreviated form of such rules may appear on tickets and shallappear on descriptive materials and shall be available at the
offices of the commission. A participant in a lottery agrees
that the determination of whether the participant is a valid
winner is subject to the lottery or game play rules and the
winner validation tests established by the commission. The
determination of the winner by the commission shall be final and
binding upon all participants in a lottery and shall not be
subject to review or appeal.
(13) (14) The commission shall institute such security
procedures as it deems necessary to ensure the honesty and
integrity of the winner selection process for each lottery. All
such security and validation procedures and techniques shall be,
and remain, confidential, and shall not be subject to any
discovery procedure in any civil judicial, administrative or
other proceeding, nor subject to the provisions of article one,
chapter twenty-nine-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended.
(c) The commission shall proceed with operation of such
additional lottery games, including the implementation of games
utilizing a variety of existing or future technological advances
at the earliest feasible date. The commission may operate
lottery games utilizing electronic computers and electronic
computer terminal devices and systems, which systems must include
a central site system of monitoring the lottery terminals
utilizing direct communication systems, or other technological
advances and procedures, ensuring honesty and integrity in theoperation of the lottery.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide for county
option elections to determine if video lottery games may be
permitted in the county.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.