The tired joke about government bureaucracy is multiple departments doing the same thing, or even worse, one department working to undo everything another department does. While those ideas are somewhat rooted in fact at times, such inefficiencies are not only in the realm of government.

In Virginia, a group of Assembly members are working to change the landscape of gambling regulation in a way that they say could streamline the task.

The creation of a new Virginia Gaming Commission would bring oversight under one umbrella. Any expansion of legal gambling in the commonwealth might make the implementation smoother.

Virginia delegates, senators support commission creation

The Virginia General Assembly’s Joint Committee to Study the Feasibility of Establishing the Virginia Gaming Commission is reviewing a proposal to accomplish its namesake task. Schmidt reports that a bill to affect the necessary changes to the commonwealth’s code could be ready for the larger Assembly to consider in the next regular session.

The committee addresses regulatory gaps in the current structure according to the members. Another interest is cutting costs inherent in the system where different agencies oversee different aspects of gaming in Virginia.

While the Virginia Lottery oversees gaming in physical casinos and online sports betting along with its ticket offerings, charitable gaming falls under the jurisdiction of the Virginia Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Furthermore, the Virginia Racing Commission regulates historical and live horse race wagering.

The current proposal would establish the new commission and put nearly all of that activity under its roof. The outlier would be the Virginia Lottery’s own operations like ticket sales and vendor relationships.

Committee members did not explicitly endorse the current proposal in Schmidt’s reporting but did support the consolidation of gaming regulation into a single agency. While it’s too early to tell how much support there is in the larger Assembly, the commission creation could grease the wheels for expansion.

Proposed commission’s role in Virginia’s potential gaming expansion

If the Assembly does create the new commission quickly, it will immediate matters to attend to. Rivers Portsmouth is the only of the state’s four current brick-and-mortar casino licensees to have opened its permanent facility so far.

Additionally, if a November 2024 referendum in Petersburg succeeds, the commission would have a significant role in facilitating the licensure and development of a casino in that city. A new casino licensee could also create another online gambling choice for Virginians.

While gaming is currently limited to lottery, horse racing, and sports betting in terms of regulated activity, that might not always be the case. Online games for real money could be on the docket at some point.

Such conversations in Richmond have been either absent or happening behind closed doors to date. However, that expansion might look very similar to how online sports betting works in Virginia.

If so, the commission would be heavily involved in establishing standards and licensing operators. That commission being in place for legislative considerations of the expansion might make Assembly members more comfortable with the idea.

There’s no reason to believe that regulated online casino apps will be available to players in Virginia anytime soon. Should that happen someday, though, the proposed Virginia Gaming Commission could play a pivotal role.