Virginia Proposes Change To College Sports Betting

A new bill in Virginia is proposing that the state legalize wagering on in-state college sports. However, this change in the state betting laws would come at a heavy price.

House Bill 1527 (HB 1527) was introduced to the state legislature by Delegate Garrett McGuire. If passed into law, it would amend the state’s gambling laws to allow sports betting on games involving NCAA Division I college teams based in Virginia.

However, there’s a significant caveat attached to this proposal. The bill would assign a tax rate of 50% of the gross revenue to all bets placed on any Virginia college sports team. The standard tax rate on all sports betting in the state is currently set at 15%.

All of the funds from that 50% tax rate would be allocated to the state’s university athletic programs, solely for the purposes of supporting NCAA Division I college and university athletic programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

To enable this plan, the bill also calls for the creation within the state treasury of a special nonreverting fund to be known as the NCAA Division I Sports Betting Fund. All interest earned on monies in this fund would also be allocated to state university athletic programs.

The percentage of the fund that would go to each school would be directly proportional to how much revenue each school generates for the fund through wagering on that school’s games.

Virginia’s current sports betting law only permits wagering on college sports involving schools from outside the state. Player prop wagering on all college sports is prohibited in Virginia and will continue to be forbidden if HB 1527 is passed into law.

HB 1527 has yet to be assigned to a committee.

A Virginia Gaming Commission is necessary for this bill to go forward

There’s another condition attached to HB 1527, and it could stop the progress of this bill in its tracks. It’s written directly into the bill that it can’t go forward into law without the state creating its own regulatory body, a Virginia Gaming Commission.

“The provisions of this act shall become effective only upon enactment of legislation by the General Assembly that establishes a Virginia Gaming Commission or other similar agency for the purposes of overseeing legal forms of gaming in the Commonwealth, at which time the provisions of this act shall become effective in accordance with the provisions of such legislation,” the bill reads.

Another bill currently before the state government, House Bill 271, proposes the establishment of a Virginia Gaming Commission, which would serve as the official regulating agency for sports betting and casino gambling in the state. Virginia currently offers online sports betting and land-based casinos to the state’s gamblers.

At the present time, all sports betting and casino gambling in Virginia is under the auspices of the Virginia Lottery. If Bill HB 271 were to be passed into law, the only regulatory authority remaining for the Virginia Lottery would be handling the state lottery.

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