Senate Bill No. 81
(By Senator Sharpe)
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[Introduced January 13, 1999; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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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
allowing electronic computer and monitor games to be made
available in a segregated, adults-only environment in a
licensed lottery business; and the use of ticket dispensers
for on-line lottery games.
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) No lottery may use the results of any amateur or
professional sporting event, dog race or horse race to determine
the winner.
(2) Electronic video lottery systems must include a central
site system of monitoring the lottery terminals utilizing an
on-line or dial-up inquiry.
(3) In a lottery utilizing a ticket, each ticket shall bear
a unique number distinguishing it from each other ticket.
(4) No lottery utilizing a machine may use machines which
dispense coins or currency.
(5) A lottery game which utilizes an electronic computer and
a video screen to operate a lottery game and communicate the
results thereof, such as the game "Travel", and which does not
utilize an interactive electronic terminal device allowing input
by an individual player, may only be made available by the
commission in: (A) Private clubs licensed in accordance with the
provisions of article seven, chapter sixty of this code; (B)
retail licensees licensed in accordance with the provisions of article three-a of said chapter sixty;
and (C)
licensed lottery
businesses where the location of the Travel television monitors
and the area reserved for the playing of the game are
sufficiently segregated from the rest of the establishment, as
directed by the commission, so as to create an adults-only
environment; and (D) in the facilities of Class A licensees
which are licensed in accordance with the provisions of section
nine, article sixteen, chapter eleven of this code, in which
facility at least seventy-five percent of the nonintoxicating
beer sold by the Class A licensee in the preceding year was sold
for consumption on the premises:
Provided, That if sales
information is not available for the preceding year, the
commission in its discretion may base any issuance or denial of
an annual license upon a reasonable projection of the volume of
sales of nonintoxicating beer for consumption on the premises as
a percentage of the total sales of nonintoxicating beer.
Nothing
in this section prohibits the use of player-operated on-line
ticket dispensing devices for playing Power Ball, Daily Millions,
Cash 25, Travel, Daily 3, Daily 4 and other on-line lottery games
if the drawing of winning numbers for those games occurs no more frequently than five-minute intervals.
(6) Selection of the winner must be predicted totally on
chance.
(7) Any drawings or winner selections shall be held in
public and witnessed by an independent accountant designated by
the director for such purposes.
(8) All lottery equipment and materials shall be regularly
inspected and tested, before and after any drawings or winner
selections, by independent qualified technicians.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(12) No prizes shall be paid which are invalid and not
contemplated by the prize structure of the lottery involved.
(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 shall
appear 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 is final
and binding upon all participants in a lottery and
shall is not
be subject to review or appeal.
(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 are and
shall
remain confidential, and
shall are 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 the
operation of the lottery.
NOTE: The purposes of this bill are to allow licensed
lottery businesses which have a segregated, adults-only place in
their establishments to sell the TRAVEL on-line lottery game, and
to allow the use of player-operated on-line ticket dispensing
devices to play TRAVEL and other on-line lottery games if the
drawing of winning numbers occur no more frequently than five- minute intervals.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.