The ABC-Gaming Subcommittee advanced a contentious iGaming legalization bill (HB161) by a razor-thin 5-4 margin to Appropriations, while also passing bills modernizing Virginia's food-to-beverage ratio law, creating a tobacco retailer licensing system, and establishing a voluntary alcohol self-exclusion registry — and laying several other bills on the table or carrying them over.
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Bea Gonzalez of the Sports Betting Alliance argued that lottery revenue increased by 62.9% in the four years since launching iGaming in Michigan and Pennsylvania and that 'the lottery is not going to lose any revenue,' while Mark Stewart of Live Casino Virginia countered that iGaming would cost nearly $220 million annually for public education, and Virginia Lottery Executive Director Colleague Jones confirmed the bill 'as currently constructed' is projected to reduce the lottery proceeds fund by up to $616 million over the first five full years.
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“Casino style gaming is happening on people's phones in the Commonwealth of Virginia already. It's estimated that iGaming has a $12 billion business in Virginia and it's completely unregulated and untaxed. So what this bill is really meant to do is to bring the gaming on your phone within a legal framework that's going to be highly regulated and include consumer protections.”
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Sign in to subscribeGood afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the subcommittee on ABC and gaming. First bill up is we need to do our attendance first. Thank you. Thank you, ma'. Am. Okay, close the roll. Thank you. First bill up is HB161. Delegate Simon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the subcommittee, House Bill 161 is the iGaming bill. We saw this bill a little bit last year. We carried it over and it looks like we may be moving in some other direction. But I think that there's a substitute that's been prepared by council. All in favor? So, speaking of the substitute, the substitute does some things that are different than what we did last year considerably. But key among what's happened here, the substitute online, you'll see, has a reenactment clause again this year. I know this bill will be reporting referred to appropriations. Understand that there's still some. And we'll probably hear from some folks that are still uncomfortable with exactly what the posture of the bill is at the moment, but hopefully we keep the conversation going as we get a bill that's also coming out of the Senate. A couple things I want to highlight for…
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