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As state legislatures in Virginia and Maryland prepare to open their 2025 sessions on Wednesday (January 8), among the myriad of bills pre-filed in both states are measures to legalize and regulate internet casino games.

In Richmond, lawmakers have spent the last few legislative sessions battling over the legality of unregulated skill-game machines, after earlier approving bills to authorize land-based casinos, online and retail sports betting, and an expansion in the number of historic horseracing machines across the state.

Democratic state Senator Mamie Locke is seeking the support of her colleagues in both chambers of the General Assembly to legalize iGaming in 2025.

would authorize the Virginia Lottery Board to regulate iGaming in the state.

The bill approves iGaming licenses for Virginia's five land-based casino operators, who would each be allowed to offer up to three iGaming platforms or skins. Licenses would cost $1m upfront.

Locke’s bill would tax iGaming at 15 percent, with 2.5 percent of the tax revenue collected being allocated to problem gambling treatment and support and the remaining 97.5 percent allocated to the general fund.

Should Locke’s bill become law, it sets a September 30, 2025 deadline for the Virginia Lottery Board to establish regulations to allow for iGaming. 

SB 827 has been referred to the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology. Locke, who is a member of the committee and the subcommittee on gaming, was unavailable for comment on Friday (January 3).

Currently, eight states have legalized iGaming. Those states are Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia, while Nevada offers online poker. 

According to a recent report by �������ϲ���̳ GamblingCompliance, up to ten states are likely to consider iGaming legislation this year, but none are necessarily expected to approve a bill due to opposition from various gaming and non-gaming constituents.

In neighboring Maryland, an iGaming bill identical to an earlier measure of 2024 has also been reintroduced.

Last year, a bill to allow Maryland voters to decide whether to legalize iGaming was approved by the House of Delegates but stalled in the Senate, in part due to coordinated opposition from several gaming companies and unions representing casino workers.

Out of the six casino operators in Maryland, MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment expressed their support for a ballot referendum on iGaming, but Baltimore-based Cordish Companies and Churchill Downs are opposed to online gaming.

Maryland’s House of Delegates passed House Bill 1319 by a vote of 92-43 largely along party lines in March, clearing the three-fifths majority needed to pass a state constitutional amendment. However, the bill, sponsored by Maryland Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary, a Democrat, failed to receive a vote in a Senate committee and expired when the legislative session ended on April 8.

Atterbeary, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, made it clear after last year’s defeat that she would reintroduce her iGaming bill, believing that the state could not afford to pass up the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that the market could generate. 

, as pre-filed for the 2025 session by Atterbeary, would make a total of 30 licenses available to the state’s land-based casinos and so-called Class B sports wagering facility licenses. 

The measure establishes a $1m license fee for an iGaming license, which would be valid for five years. One percent of license fees collected would be directed to a problem gambling fund, with the remainder being deposited into the education fund known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund.

Under Atterbeary's bill, live dealer games would be taxed at 20 percent, with a 55 percent tax on the proceeds of iGaming revenue. Atterbeary proposes to use iGaming tax revenue to support counties that host casinos, boost racing purses, and racetrack facility upgrades, support minority and women-owned businesses, and fund problem gambling treatment.

In an effort to garner union support for her bill, Atterbeary requires that live dealer studios be unionized operations, but in return, the measure includes a “Labor Peace Agreement” that prohibits work stoppages, boycotts and any other economic interference for the first five years after iGaming is launched in Maryland.

Similar to last year’s bill, the legislation would include a fund to support employees displaced by iGaming. HB 1319 in the 2024 session set aside $10m for the fund, while HB 17 also created a $10m fund to assist any laid-off workers.

The legislation also includes a requirement that licensees commit to spending $5m during their initial five-year license to build and operate a live gaming studio. Atterbeary’s bill has been assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission would promulgate regulations to allow for iGaming and produce an annual report that studies the impact of iGaming on casinos and surrounding businesses, as well as looking into the impacts of online sweepstakes and other unauthorized gaming.

If the Maryland legislature votes for iGaming in the 2025 session, it would be on the November 2026 ballot. The ballot question would ask voters: “Do you favor the expansion of commercial gaming in the State of Maryland to authorize internet gaming for the primary purpose of raising revenue for education?”