Virginia Poised to Legalize iGaming

By: Sara Dalsheim

There has been chatter for some time that Virginia will soon become the next state to join in on the fun of legalized iGaming. Today, House Bill 161 and Senate Bill 118 will be officially offered as proposed legislation (the bills were pre-filed on January 6, 2026).

House Bill 161 will officially be introduced by Delegate (“Del.”) Marcus Simon proposing to amend and reenact the Code of Virginia to permit legalized iGaming with licensing, rulemaking, and enforcement to be accomplished by the Virginia Lottery Board. Virginia authorized the operation of land-based casino gambling in 2019. In the following year, the state legalized online sports wagering and iLottery. The legalization of iGaming seems like the logical next step for the state’s flourishing gaming ecosystem.

The forthcoming legislation would give retail casino operators the opportunity to apply for a 5-year iGaming license with initial fees of $500,000 and renewal fees of $250,000. These iGaming operators would be permitted to offer up to three online casino skins, each for a respective platform fee of $2,000,000. Effectively permitting as many as fifteen online casino skins to the five Virginia casinos/casino projects. Platform providers would also be subject to a $50,000 license application fee. The legislation states that there would be a 15% tax rate on adjusted gross revenue for online casino gaming, with 5% to be deposited into the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund.

Notably, this legislation also specifically prohibits sweepstakes casino gaming. It penalizes the offering of such unlicensed sweepstakes casino games, including a civil penalty up to $100,000 for the first offense and up to $250,000 for the second, and it allows the Virginia Lottery Board, Office of the Attorney General, and Virginia State Police to investigate potential violations with cease-and-desist letters and subpoenas. Virginia is not the first state to propose such legislation. Other states with legalized iGaming have been most impactful when it comes to prohibiting and ridding their state of other types of non-regulated casino-like gaming offerings.

This new legislation is not Virginia’s first attempt to legalize iGaming, and these efforts have come as the state is building out retail casinos across the state with several projects still under construction. In 2024, Del. Simon introduced House Bill 2171. Then in 2025, two online casino bills were introduced by Del. Simon and Senator Mamie Locke. The online casino legislation failed to advance in 2025 due to time constraints and what were deemed unresolved regulatory questions on what authority should oversee online casino offerings. Further, there were concerns that online casino gaming would cannibalize the flourishing iLottery in Virginia and the more recent land-based casino gaming establishments. Therefore, policymakers did not proceed and called for additional studies to be conducted. Recent data, however, suggests that the opposite is true; legalized iGaming should only enhance the revenue for these other gaming offerings.

Although, issues and concerns remain, particularly on which Virginia regulatory agency should oversee iGaming. The Virginia Lottery Board seems like the obvious choice as it does so with online sports wagering and iLottery. However, the state also has the Virginia Racing Commission that oversees live, historical and advanced deposit wagering on horse racing. Additionally, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services regulates all charitable gambling and daily fantasy sports offers in the Commonwealth. Some lawmakers have suggested that since there are currently three separate government agencies that regulate the gaming ecosystem there needs to be a new regulatory agency put in place to condense and streamline gaming regulatory bureaucracy and minimize inconsistent rules. Del. Paul Krizek has stated that he plans to introduce legislation in this session that would set up a new Virginia Gaming Commission to oversee all the online gaming industry. The potential or actual filing of this bill could impede the ability of House Bill 161 and Senate Bill 118 to proceed and pass into law.

The fact that this bill has been pre-filed this year possibly hints that regulated iGaming is a priority of the Virginia legislature. The legalized iGaming efforts and progress have been two years in the making and perhaps all of the time, effort, and discussions will finally result in some action and opportunities for Virginia residents in 2026.