Virginia iGaming Bill Dead for 2025, Tysons Casino Continues to Gain Traction

Posted on: January 23, 2025, 09:10h. 

Last updated on: January 23, 2025, 09:53h.

Legislation to allow online casinos to come to Virginia is dead for 2025.

Virginia iGaming Tysons casino
It will be at least another year until Virginia welcomes iGaming to the commonwealth. Legislation to possibly allow a casino in Tysons, however, has advanced. (Image: Commonwealth of Virginia)

As Casino.org reported earlier this month, Sen. Mamie Locke (D-Portsmouth) filed Senate Bill 827 ahead of the Virginia General Assembly’s 2025 session, which began on January 7. Locke proposed allowing the state’s five casinos in Portsmouth, Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, and Petersburg to each run up to three online casino platforms.

Locke and Del. Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church), who introduced companion iGaming legislation in the House of Delegates, announced this week that they were shelving the online casino bills. They say that will allow for a comprehensive study to determine what impact online gambling would have on the commonwealth.

“After introducing this bill, we decided it requires further study,” Locke said.

Del. Paul Krizek (D-Alexandria), who chairs the chamber’s Gaming Committee, said there are “so many questions” that need to be answered before moving such a proposed expansion of gaming to the Assembly.

Short Legislative Year

In even-numbered years, the Virginia General Assembly meets for 60 session days, but in odd-numbered years such as 2025, the session runs for only 30 days. Krizek says the shortened legislative calendar presents too enormous of a task to consider iGaming.

Krizek, a Democrat, is seemingly supportive of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s opinion that Virginia should form a gaming commission to oversee casino gambling, sports betting, parimutuel wagering, and historical horse racing machines. Currently, such regulatory responsibilities rest with the Virginia Lottery Board, a commission whose regulatory scope has expanded greatly over the past half-decade.

Even if we wanted to pass this right now, it would be a failure because they (the Virginia Lottery Board) would not be able to handle it. It would be too much,” Krizek said.

Regulating iGaming is indeed a herculean duty. Along with conducting background reviews of key executives and employees of each applying iGaming entity, online casino regulators must perform a slew of compliance testing for online games and geofencing capabilities. For a board that only several years ago only monitored and ran its lottery, the added duties could overburden the agency.

However, Virginia does already have iLottery and many online testing capabilities in place, including geolocation, which ensures that a player attempting to access the lottery’s slot-like digital instants is physically located within the commonwealth and at least the minimum age to play (18).

Tysons Casino Progresses 

Though iGaming in Virginia is dead, a legislative drive to bring a casino to Northern Virginia continues to progress in the Richmond capital.

Just a day after Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell’s (D-Fairfax) Senate Bill 982 cleared a subcommittee, the statute passed the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee on an 11-3 vote. Locke was among the votes in support.

The measure now moves to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee where it will face Committee Chair Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth), the self-dubbed “casino queen.” The powerful lawmaker, who has held her Senate seat for over three decades, has expressed differing opinions in recent years about a casino in Northern Virginia.

In 2023, she said Virginia should begin its commercial casino industry with the properties already authorized in the southern half of the state. However, last year she said a casino in Northern Virginia could be a major tax generator.

SB982 is heavily opposed by many elected state officials, local governments, and homeowners’ associations in the region. The bill would only allow Fairfax County to conduct a county referendum asking residents if they wish to allow a casino resort in Tysons near the Metro’s Silver Line.