Managing Editor
To legalize online casinos and poker, Virginia only needs House and Senate legislators to agree on the details, but the failure to pass a related regulatory bill on Tuesday raises questions about the likelihood of that happening. The Senate would like to see the Lottery Commission’s current role as regulator expanded and formalized, while the House insists on the creation of an independent regulator for commercial gaming. Senators resoundingly voted down a House amendment to that effect.
Both chambers narrowly passed bills legalizing iGaming last month. Unfortunately, those bills aren’t the same, so before the legislation can proceed to the governor, the two chambers will need to come together and find a version they can both agree on.
Neither chamber has taken a floor vote on the other’s bill yet. However, the House General Laws Committee has already recommended a substitute to the Senate bill, and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee has done the same with the House bill. So, even if both of these pass, they will need to go back to their original chambers again.
The good news is that the latest amendments look much more similar than the original bills did. A few differences remain, such as in how the tax revenue would be distributed. However, these seem reconcilable.
One of the original points of difference was on the timeline to launch. Both new versions push the adoption of final rules back to January 1, 2028 and require that the bill be re-passed in 2027 to become law.
The bad news is that Gov. Abigail Spanberger has indicated that she wants a Gaming Commission set up before any further gambling expansion. If the Senate won’t budge on that issue, it’s likely to sink the deal.
Senate Rejects House Amendment to Regulatory Bill
As the two chambers contemplate each others’ iGaming bills, the crux of the matter may lie in another bill entirely, SB 609.
That bill began its life as a fairly simple modification to how the proceeds from Virginia casinos get distributed. Through a series of substitutes, it has grown into a sprawling bill that makes numerous tweaks to various sections of the gaming code.
The Senate passed its version narrowly (20-19) on Feb. 16. The House amended and passed the bill by a much more comfortable margin of 90-6. However, the version it returned to the Senate bore little resemblance to the one the Senate had passed. Senators rejected the new version yesterday with only two votes in favor and 38 against.
The House has insisted on its substitute and requested a conference committee.
The most significant difference between the two is in how gaming would be regulated in Virginia.
Independent Regulator or Expanded Lottery Responsibilities?
When Virginia rushed ahead with retail casino legalization in 2020, it did so without establishing a dedicated regulator, leaving it to the state Lottery Board to oversee them. Now that the casinos are up and running, there’s an effort underway to create a more permanent solution.
The Senate, it seems, sees little problem with the current system. Its proposal consists of changing the existing Virginia Lottery Board’s name to the Virginia Lottery and Gaming Board, and expanding its internal structure somewhat. The House, on the other hand, would like to see an entirely independent Virginia Gaming Commission established.
Given the Governor’s apparent desire for a Gaming Commission, relenting may not be an option for House Representatives — at least, not without indirectly sinking the iGaming effort in the process. If Senators prove intractable on the issue, then Virginia online poker could stall out agonizingly close to success, even if the remaining issues with the iGaming bill itself are sorted out.
