The Supreme Court of Virginia has overruled an injunction on a motion preventing the state from banning skill game machines, reinstating the ban in the process.
This overturns a decision made in 2021 by a lower court in Virginia which claimed that a ban on skill games would be an infringement against freedom of speech laws. This meant that skill game operators could continue to offer their products and games in venues across the state.
The games mimic slot machine games yet note that players must input a certain level of skill in order to win a prize. Yet the introduction of casino gaming in Virginia in the last year has caused more controversy with regards to these machines.
The legal status of skill games has changed several times in the last four years as the executive and judicial branches aim to navigate how best to interpret and implement rules.
Skill games were first banned in 2020 when the General Assembly passed a law doing so, though the then-Governor Ralph Northam delayed the ban to raise funds during the Covid crisis.
The ban was enacted for a short period in 2021 until a lawsuit was filed arguing the bill was illegal under state law.
However, the state Supreme Court has now overturned the lower court’s initial decision, which will now see the skill games banned for a second time.
The court filing read: “Although at times it is difficult to determine where a particular activity falls on the speech/conduct continuum, no such difficulty is present when the activity being regulated is gambling.
“We long have viewed gambling as conduct that may be heavily regulated and even banned by the Commonwealth as an exercise of its police powers.”
