CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Spring weather helped improve state Lottery revenues in March, but not enough to overcome still-lagging sales figures, Lottery Commission members were advised Thursday.

At $16.9 million in sales for the month, traditional online and instant games came in at 8 percent over projections, thanks to a large Powerball jackpot and the growing popularity of the state's Hot Lotto game -- but still lagged behind March 2009 figures by nearly $800,000.

Meanwhile, Lottery director John Musgrave said the introduction of a second national mega-lottery, Mega Millions, in the state appears to be complimenting -- not cannibalizing -- Powerball sales.

"Mega Millions is making a difference," he said. "It is increasing our overall sales, and it's slowly increasing."

He said the Lottery will be focusing on promoting the new game, whose March sales of $513,663 paled to the $4.09 million figure for the more established Powerball.

The only other revenue category to exceed expectations in March was limited video lottery in bars and clubs around the state, with gross revenues of $36.6 million running about 9 percent above projections. Still, that is nearly $1.3 million below March 2009 numbers.

Video lottery and table games at the state's racetrack/casinos continued to suffer in March.

Racetrack video slot collections of $68 million were $8 million below the March 2009 figure, while table games brought in $2.6 million, down more than $600,000 from last March.

For the 2009-10 budget year, overall racetrack video lottery revenues of $556.5 million are running more than $72 million below last year.

Overall Lottery revenues topped the $1 billion mark for the budget year in March, but are down $102 million from the same point in 2008-09.

At $414 million, the state's share of the Lottery profits for the year is down about 10 percent.

Some relief could be in sight in July, when the Charles Town racetrack and The Greenbrier resort are scheduled to launch full-scale table games operations.

With more than 100 gaming tables, the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town will be the largest table games operation in the state. The Greenbrier's permanent casino is slated to have 35 tables, including 10 that will be high-limit stakes.

Also Thursday:

| Musgrave said negotiations continue on the Lottery's offer to purchase the City Center West office tower for the Lottery and other state agencies.

"We've been very interested in the Maier site. We think it would be an excellent location," he said. "Negotiations are still going on."

| Musgrave said he has had no word from Gov. Joe Manchin on whether Manchin will put a bill to change the re-bidding process for the 10-year limited video lottery licenses on the May special session agenda.

In March, Manchin vetoed a bill that critics said would have favored machine distributors over bar owners in the re-bidding process, which will begin this fall. At the time, Manchin said he would put an agreed-to compromise bill on a future special session call.

| The commission postponed for a month a vote on whether to revoke the limited video lottery license for the River City Ale Works in Wheeling.

The upscale restaurant and bar in the downtown Wheeling Artisans Center was granted a license in 2009, but Lottery inspectors later realized there was a small bar with LVL machines within 150 feet of the establishment -- meaning that River City should not have gotten an LVL license, under state Lottery regulations.

Representatives of River City requested a delay in the revocation vote, noting that they are in negotiations to buy the smaller bar with the intent of removing the LVL machines there.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.