Virginia to legalize online gambling and sports betting
Licensing will not take place until 2020 under new bill set for approval
The legalization of online gambling and sports betting in Virginia is less than a day away after regulators approved a bill to make both verticals legal in the state.
The bill, known as SB 1126, allows the Virginia Lottery Board to regulate “casino gaming”, limiting this to cities within the state which meet certain economic and sociological criteria.
Its definition of casino gaming includes standard land-based casino gaming, as well as online gaming and sports betting.
Under the criteria, any casino gaming must take place in areas where at least 40% of the land area is exempt from local property taxation, or 24% in areas where a Virginia Indian Tribe conducts casino gaming.
These areas must have had an unemployment rate of less than 5% in November 2017, a poverty rate of at most 20% in 2016, and a population decrease of at least 4% in the period between 1990 and 2016. Any area chosen must also have a population greater than 200,000.
In addition to these criteria, the bill requires any casino gaming proposal to pass a local referendum before it can be enacted in the area.
Now that the bill has been approved, the governor has until midnight tomorrow to sign it into law.
No specific regulations concerning online gambling and sports betting are detailed within the main text of the bill, with the responsibility for drafting these rules left to the Virginia Lottery Board.
To facilitate the development of rules and regulations, the bill mandates the senate Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to conduct a review of gaming laws in other states, reporting back to the Virginia senate by December 2019.
Under the bill, the Virginia Lottery Board is prevented from issuing licences before July 2020, and likewise any referendums on casino gaming are prohibited until January 2021.