Va. (WSET) — Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger on Friday vetoed legislation that would legalize skill gaming in the Commonwealth.
Senate Bill 661 aimed to legalize and regulate the gaming machines that have been considered a gray area for years. The bill would also have imposed a 25 percent tax, set limits on how many machines would be allowed in any given business and require players to be 21 years or older.
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In her veto, Governor Spanberger stated that Senate Bill 661 would “strain an already fragmented system and introduce thousands more machines without a comprehensive regulatory system,” and that the “rapid expansion of gaming in Virginia over the last decade has outpaced the Commonwealth’s ability to provide consistent enforcement, robust public safety oversight, and meaningful assessments of the potential impacts or harms of gaming in all its forms.”
Gov. Spanberger pointed to data collected by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority between 2020 and 2021, when skill games were legally operating in the Commonwealth. The data illustrated a concentration of machines in communities with higher percentages of people living below the poverty line, lower education levels and higher percentages of minorities than Virginia as a whole.
The governor has been consistent in her support for centralized gaming enforcement. She said that moving forward, she would continue to work with the General Assembly to make sure any expansion of legal gaming in Virginia prioritizes the well-being of all communities.