"Richmond, Va., Airport Officials Vote to Allow State Lottery Machines"

November 29, 2000

Richmond, Va., Airport Officials Vote to Allow State Lottery Machines
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia


Nov. 29--The Virginia Lottery is on track to make more than $100,000 this
year at Richmond International Airport, the only airport in the state with
lottery machines.

"You've got all kinds of people flying into Virginia who know it's a 'Big
Game' state," lottery spokesman Ed Scarborough said this week.

Perched under bright lights near first-floor ticket counters, the airport's
self-serve lottery machines include a new "scratch" card game that's bagging
$1,100 per week in sales, "which is really very good," another lottery
official said.

But what's good for the lottery may not have been good for the airport.

It was learned this week that, because of a regulatory oversight, Richmond
International has been violating its own rules that prohibit gambling
activities.

The 6-year loophole was filled yesterday by the Capital Region Airport
Commission.

By a unanimous vote, the regional board changed its rules and regulations to
enter into a letter of agreement with the Virginia Lottery Department.

The measure gives the commission's approval to allow lottery vending
machines on the first floor of the terminal.

However, the authorization came more than six years after the Virginia
Lottery first put a machine inside the airport in July 1994, according to
lottery officials.

It also comes months after the new, brightly lighted lottery display was
opened in the terminal last July.

Asked whether the airport had broken its own anti-gambling edict, Richmond
commissioner Robert F. Norfleet Jr. said yesterday, "I would guess you'd
have to say that. From a technical perspective, I guess we were" in
violation.

Norfleet, chairman of the commission's finance and audit committee, said,
"All we did is correct something that's been out of whack" for a long time.

Lottery officials also downplayed the issue.

"They're certainly not violating the lottery's rules and regulations," said
lottery spokeswoman Cherie Phaup.

The rule change disclosed a little-known fact about Richmond International:
It's the only Virginia airport where travelers can play the lottery.

"I don't know the reason for this," Phaup said.

At Norfolk International Airport, executive director Ken Scott said there's
no lottery equipment because "we don't allow any type of vending machines."

Norfolk's airport board members "hate the looks" of all vending machines, he
said.

Officials at Newport News/Williamsburg, Washington Reagan and Washington
Dulles airports said the lottery has never been an issue.

For Richmond International, the stakes are fairly low: The airport gets paid
$121 per month for leasing the lottery space.

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