No advances on Virginia online casino bills
The proposals to allow online casino games stalled in a conference committee.
US.- Virginia’s legislative session has closed with no agreement on a final version of proposed online casino legislation. Two bills, House Bill 161 and Senate Bill 118, differed on the allocation of tax revenue and stalled in a conference committee. The proposals may be reintroduced in a future session.
The House of Delegates approved HB 161 in February, a day after the Senate passed SB 118 but the houses needed to agree on a final version. Both bills proposed the legalisation and regulation of online gaming under the supervision of the Virginia Lottery Board. Existing casino operators would pay $2m for a licence while online-only operators would pay an initial licensing fee of $500,000.
Both bills also proposed a 20 per cent tax on adjusted gross igaming revenue and a 6 per cent economic development fee. However, the House bill proposed assigning 89 per cent of tax revenue to the general fund until 2036, and 5 per cent for problem gambling programmes. The Senate proposed 95 per cent for education, 3 per cent for igaming regulation and 2 per cent for problem gambling initiatives. SB 118 also received an amendment to put the proposed launch date back to July 1 2027.
