Of course, casinos in Virginia will be heavily regulated by the Virginia Lottery Board, and Virginia will reap millions of dollars in tax revenues. Five cities, including Richmond, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Danville, and Bristol have already been approved to operate casinos. In 2020 the Virginia Assembly passed House Bill 4, which allowed for Casinos to be built in the Commonwealth. The Virginia Lottery reported that it lost 140 million dollars to its only competitor, the operators of Skill Games. The legality of Skill Games was hotly contested. This “loop-hole” allowed Skill Game operators to install thousands of these machines across the Commonwealth. Operators of Skill Games claim that the introduction of this element of skill into gameplay means it is not really gambling. A Skill Game looks and feels like a slot machine but inserts a minor element of skill into the gameplay. It is estimated that there are over 10,000 Skill Games in the Commonwealth. Over the last several years so-called Skill Games have been popping up all over Virginia. Commercial gambling remained illegal for everyone except the State for nearly three decades the Commonwealth successfully fought off all competition, thus protecting their monopolistic cash cow. The Virginia Lottery sold its first ticket in 1988. In 1987, the Virginia Assembly determined that gambling was a moral hazard, and therefore illegal, unless the Commonwealth profited from it.

Currently, there are three groups vying to reap the substantial profits of Virginia’s gambling industry. No longer is the General Assembly concerned over the moral hazards of gambling. Overtime, Virginia, and other states have incrementally allowed gambling to creep back into polite society. For decades gambling was completely illegal in Virginia and many other U.S. They claim that gambling addiction disproportionately impacts the working poor and ultimately leads to the breakdown of the family. They claim that gambling leads to addiction and the squandering of needed resources that would otherwise be used to take care of one’s family. For centuries, certain religions have preached against the evils of gambling.

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