In Virginia, sports betting legislation was approved in April and took effect on July 1. Two weeks later, at the lottery board’s July 15 meeting, the first part of draft regulations were released for 60 days of public comment. Executive Director Kevin Hall said those will include the timeline, the application process, what sports may be bet on, advertising guidelines and the Consumer’s Bill of Rights required by law.
Hall said on August 10, supplemental proposed rules will be released, including financial controls, operational and technical requirements and internal controls.
Hall noted all of the regulations must be approved by September 15, when the lottery board will review and vote on them. Next, from October 15 through October 31, the lottery will accept and review license applications from potential sports betting operators. The first licenses will be issued and platforms will be authorized in January 2021.
Hall commented, “We’ve known it was coming. We had some nominal impact during the sausage-making process, but we got started ahead of the July 1 date. We’ve already kind of done a deep dive on some of the models out there. We’ve established relationships with operators.”
Virginia’s sports betting law sets an application fee of $250,000 for a 3-year license. Gross gaming revenue will be taxed at 15 percent. of gross gaming revenue. Sports betting will be allowed on professional and college sports excluding Virginia college teams. Sports wagering will be legal statewide via online/mobile platforms and at brick-and-mortar locations at the five proposed casinos, also approved by the legislature, and two professional sports facilities.
The five proposed casinos were approved for Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Richmond. The lottery has approved their casino partners, except for Richmond which is on a different timeline and did not request approval for a casino partner, Hall said. All five require voter referendums in November.
Implementing sports betting and overseeing five new casinos has its share of challenges, Hall said. “We are kind of building the plane while we are flying it. It’s important to get it right and get it right from the start, and I think we’ve done a good job getting ourselves ready. It’s no small thing that I think we are going hit the deadlines,” Hall said.
He added he’s been following other jurisdictions’ processes for launching sports betting. “My sense is that the New Jersey framework is kind of road-tested and the industry is comfortable with it, and it’s operating pretty successfully. We can take from here and borrow from there. We’re glad not to be first movers.”
