A meeting dedicated to retail casino operators in Virginia quickly turned into conversations about how to handle online casinos and sweepstakes.
Khalid Jones, executive director of current gaming regulator the Virginia Lottery, on Monday told a subcommittee studying whether or not to create the Virginia Gaming Commission that the scope of unregulated online gaming “is not good.”
The Virginia Legislature passed laws in 2023 to force pornography websites to either verify ages or not serve the state, which Jones seemingly alluded to when talking about options to handle sweepstakes and other unregulated gaming.
“It’s been done in other context, right?” Jones asked at the meeting. “Other kinds of content that the Virginia Legislature has not wanted to be allowed to be accessed in Virginia, has been not allowed to be accessed here.”
Lottery working with others on sweepstakes
Jones noted the Virginia Lottery lacks enforcement capabilities like other gambling regulators when he was asked what the lottery is doing to shut down sweepstakes and other unregulated gaming.
He noted that two ways to fight the games are working with app stores directly as well as going after the social media companies that advertise the sweepstakes casinos. On the enforcement side, the lottery said both the Virginia State Police and the attorney general’s office have been helpful.
“We plan to be more aggressive in that space in the pocket that the Virginia Lottery can be, understanding not wanting to step past our regulatory capabilities outside the sphere of our influence,” Jones said.
Torian: industry needs to ‘help’
Following a discussion about the illegal games throughout Virginia, Delegate Luke Torian made a plea to anyone in the gaming industry that hopes to offer products in the state.
“So what I want to say to all of you, whether you’re casino, whether you’re skill games, whether you’re iGaming, whatever you guys are, I’ve said this once and I will share with you again: You all need to give us some help in how to go about these regulations and how to proceed in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Torian said.
“We have an onslaught of gaming entities within the Commonwealth and, I will share this with you, I don’t believe you want to leave the total regulations of gaming, the gaming industry, into the hands of legislators. Put it into our hands without any recommendations and suggestions from you all, you’re gonna have to take what we give you.
“And I’m just pleading and I’m asking you all, whatever entity you are involved with, we would love to have your help so that what your interest is, all of your interests, will remain healthy and productive and economically profitable for you. But leave it up to us, don’t get upset with what you get.”
Virginia decided to pass on discussing online casinos in 2025 due to a short session and will begin the conversation new in 2026.
Cordish: petitioned to repeal PA iGaming
Torian was also quick to admonish representatives from the Cordish Company, which wants to build a casino in Petersburg, for the second half of its presentation against online casinos due to what he called “some hypocrisy.”
“You speak against apps on the phone but yet you have one in Pennsylvania,” Torian said. “You are either for it, or you are against it, and you jump into the fray because it’s profitable.”
Cordish General Counsel Mark Stewart, who is also a board member of the National Association Against iGaming, said the company got the license to protect its investment of hundreds of millions in the state and has requested that Pennsylvania repeal its online casino law.
“We oppose it, absolutely,” Stewart said. “We, as I said, opposed it before it was enacted and we have encouraged the Commonwealth to repeal the law. … But it is legal there, and we’re a gaming business, so we got a license.”
Cordish President Rob Norton said its Pennsylvania operations have made less money with iGaming and retail combined compared to if the state did not have iGaming, saying the casino has lost customers that would come in physically to its online app.
