The Virginia Senate approved the idea of legalizing online casino gaming by the skin of its teeth on Monday after the bill was defeated in its initial floor vote in the full chamber.
Voting on Sen. Mamie Locke’s SB 118 on Feb. 16, senators initially tallied 20-19 against passing the bill onto the House of Representatives, before a senator called for a reconsideration. After the reconsideration measure was approved, senators revoted on the bill itself later in the day and passed it by a narrow second vote of 19-17. Three senators who had voted against passing the bill in the first vote abstained from the second vote.
That floor revote came three weeks after a similar thing happened to SB 118 in committee stage in late January.
Having beaten Tuesday’s crossover deadline for legislation in Virginia, the proposal will now head to the House.
House passes its own bill on crossover deadline day
Presenting her bill on the Senate floor on Monday, Locke positioned the effort to legalize online casino as a measure that would “dramatically curtail Virginia’s thriving illegal iGaming market.” However, multiple senators spoke out against the idea on Monday before the votes, with one calling the idea of legalizing mobile casinos “madness.”
On Tuesday, the day after the Senate voting drama, a similar situation played out in the House.
The companion bill in that latter chamber, Del. Marcus Simon’s HB 161, was rejected by a 46-49 vote on the House floor on Feb. 17 ahead of the crossover deadline. As with the Senate bill, lawmakers approved a motion to reconsider later in the day and the House passed its bill 67-30 in the revote.
Now, SB 118 and HB 161 are set to swap chambers. With each version having different specifications, lawmakers will have to find a way to agree on the best specific path forward amid evident divisions in both chambers over the iGaming issue at large.
Revised bills would delay enaction
The legislation approved this week would allow the Virginia Lottery to issue online casino licenses to the five existing brick-and-mortar casino operators in the state. Operators would pay $500,000 for an initial license and would be able to offer up to three iCasino skins if they paid a $2 million platform fee on top of the licensing charge.
Per the latest version of the bills, online casino gaming would be taxed at 20% of adjusted gross gaming revenue. Fiscal estimates suggest that online casino legalization could raise an additional $343 million in total state revenue in FY28. In addition to the tax, a separate economic development fee would send 6% of online casino revenue to the Casino Gaming Hold Harmless Fund, designed to offset any potential revenue losses that land-based casinos might experience as a result of the expansion of online gambling.
The two bills do have a major difference between them after each of them went through significant changes during the legislative process in their respective chambers of origin.
SB 118 was altered again on Monday before it was eventually passed. The final substituted version would still legalize online casino gaming this year, but would delay its implementation until July 1, 2027. The Virginia Lottery would be mandated to develop and finalize regulations for the market by next January.
In contrast, the House-approved HB 161 now includes a requirement that it must pass the full legislature in both 2026 and 2027, a measure which could prevent Virginia from actually launching online casino gaming until 2028, even if it passes this year.
iCasino bill would serve as sweepstakes ban
One other thing that SB 118 and HB 161 still have in common is that they would ban sweepstakes casinos unless the operators are licensed as online casino operators under the terms of the legislation.
“Except if conducted by a licensed internet gaming operator, offering or conducting a sweepstakes in which a person present in the Commonwealth may participate by paying or proffering something of value, including an entry fee for the opportunity to win or receive cash or a cash equivalent, shall constitute illegal internet gaming,” reads the bill.
The Virginia Lottery board would be given the powers to take enforcement action against sweepstakes gaming operators and other unlicensed platforms, including issuing cease-and-desist orders or pursuing injunctive relief.
Last week, a separate bill specifically dedicated to banning sweeps was pushed until 2027 after the bill’s sponsor said “more homework” was needed from the state gambling regulator. That bill, SB 579, was substituted in the Courts of Justice Committee to abandon the proposed ban and instead compel the Virginia Lottery to establish a working group to study the implications of online sweepstakes and report back to the legislature by Dec. 1, 2026.
However, if either of the online casino bills is passed and signed by the governor in its current form, sweeps would be banned anyway.
