Despite a setback late last week, Virginia’s iGaming bill — which would also ban sweepstakes casinos — still has life.
On Jan. 23, a Virginia Senate subcommittee did not advance Senate Bill 118, a bill that would legalize online casinos in the state, while subsequently outlawing sweepstakes casinos. The bill wanted to tie iGaming to a “casino gaming establishment.”
The bill also explicitly outlawed “a promotional, advertising, or marketing event, contest, or game, whether played online or in person, in which a prize or prize equivalent is awarded, either directly or indirectly through means such as a dual currency system of payment, as determined by the Board, that allows a participant to exchange the currency for a prize or prize equivalent.”
The Senate General Laws and Technology Gaming Subcommittee rejected the measure (3-4) from being considered by the state’s full General Laws and Technology Committee.
But Virginia’s legislative session does allow the measure to be reconsidered with amendments.
And SB118 will be reconsidered at a Jan. 28 subcommittee meeting.
‘We can keep it illegal, or we can put up some guardrails’
SB118, sponsored by Sen. Mamie Locke, is an exact duplicate of Virginia House Bill 161, which Rep. Marcus Simon introduced into the House at the start of the 2026 legislative session.
Both bills would allow the state’s three casinos to offer up to three online casino skins, subject to a $2 million platform fee and a $500,000 licensing fee. The iGaming would also set the gaming tax rate at 15%.
“We can sit here and clutch our moralistic pearls all we want to,” Locke said during the General Laws and Technology Gaming Subcommittee’s hearing. “But it’s [online casino gaming] already being done. So, we can keep it illegal, or we can put up some guardrails.”
In order for Virginia’s lawmakers to consider any bills, they need to advance out of their original chamber by Feb. 17.
Who wants SB118 to pass?
SB118’s efforts to legalize online casinos have received support from a wide range of gambling brands, including Boyd Gaming, Evolution, Caesars Entertainment, and the Sports Betting Alliance, a trade group with current members that include Bet365, BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics.
But the bill failed to get out of subcommittee over concerns about who would regulate online casinos. The Virginia Lottery oversees the lottery, casino gambling, and online sports betting. They may not have the infrastructure to regulate iGaming. And there were concerns that the bill lacked sufficient provisions for safe gambling.
“It is something that needs to be regulated at some point,” Chairman Jeremy McPike said at the hearing. “We’ve got to figure this out. I’m going to abstain on this one, because I do want to see legislation that really ups the game in terms of problem gaming.”
Separately, Senate Bill 195 and Senate Bill 558 would establish a Virginia Gaming Commission, creating an “independent agency of the Commonwealth, exclusive of the legislative, executive, or judicial branches of government, to oversee and regulate all forms of legal gambling in the Commonwealth except for the state lottery.”
Both of those bills made it out of subcommittee and now advance to the full Senate General Laws and Technology Committee.
SGLA pushing for regulation
With the state’s booming gambling industry, it feels like it’s not a question of if but when online casino gaming will be legalized in Virginia. And it seems that iGaming’s legalization may be tied to sweeps casinos’ elimination.
Sean Ostrow, the Managing Director for Social Gaming Leadership Alliance (SGLA), condemned the sweeping ban within these bills.
“Forcing the square peg of sweepstakes games into the round hole of iGaming regulation will mean many longstanding, responsible social plus companies will be unable to continue to operate in Virginia,” he said at the hearing.
The SGLA wants legislators to reconsider SB118’s provision that ties online gaming to one of the state’s physical casinos and to create a regulatory framework solely for sweeps gaming. This would allow the sweepstakes casinos currently operating in Virginia to stay open.
