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Virginia online casinos bill delayed until 2027
Legislation to legalize real money online casino apps in Virginia fell short before the legislative session ended, but talks could resume next year.
The 2026 legislative session in Virginia came to a close with bills to legalize online casinos in the state failing to cross the finish line in both the House of Delegates and Senate. Hope remains that the market could still launch by lawmakers' prospective timeline, though, considering both proposals required a second vote in 2027.
Conference committee could not agree on Virginia online casino bills
Legislators in the Senate and House were considering bills to authorize real money online casino apps in Virginia, with each chamber insisting that their version was the ideal bill to push forward. Just next door, WV online casinos continue to thrive.
A conference committee handling the proposals agreed on many of the bigger issues separating the two pieces of legislation, but without coming to a compromise on everything resulted in the bills failing to move ahead.
The Senate version to legalize online casinos, for example, called for 89% of tax revenue to go toward the state's general fund. Meanwhile, the House bill would send 95% of tax revenue to the Modern Public Education Fund that it would create.
The two proposals, however, did agree to carve out 6% of tax revenue for Virginia's land-based casinos if business was cannibalized by new online casinos.
In addition, each bill would allow Virginia land-based casinos to partner with up to three online operators to offer casino games online, with initial licensing fees costing $500,000 and platform fees running $2 million.
Efforts could be revived in 2027
Both bills would have required each chamber of the Virginia General Assembly to pass 2026 legislation again next year, creating a potential launch of Virginia online casinos by 2028. As a result, stakeholders are holding out hope that the market could still go live within that expected timeline.
That said, the National Association Against iGaming – a prominent opponent of online casinos with membership including land-based casino operators such as Cordish, which runs a commercial casino near Richmond – lauded the failure of both Virginia online casino bills, saying in a statement that lawmakers "made the right decision."
A spokesperson for the organization said that Virginia online casinos would come with "serious consequences," including heightened risk of gaming addiction and financial harm while also cutting into the bottom line for brick-and-mortar casinos in the state.
One byproduct of iGaming legislation falling short is that legalizing online casinos would have also banned online sweepstakes casinos in Virginia. With the proposals failing to pass, it means sweeps operators can continue operating – especially after another bill to specifically ban them never made it out of the Senate.
Lawmakers did pass several gaming-related bills before the legislative session closed, including the banning of credit card usage for sports betting as well as the authorization for a new land-based casino in Fairfax County, pending approval from county voters. Credit card casinos remain popular in the states they're legal like Michigan and Pennsylvania.
