Gambling, or gaming as it’s referred to, amounted to over $1.1 billion in revenue for the Commonwealth last year. And as new and old forms of gambling become more popular, Virginia legislators and its governor are looking to consolidate oversight of the changing landscape.

Casinos, lottery, sports betting, online gaming, charitable gaming, BINGO, live horse racing, historic horse racing: there are lots of ways to get rich quick, or at least go broke trying, in the Commonwealth these days.

But as modern gaming mixes with the old, and annual revenues tick up in the billions, Virginia’s legislature and Governor Glenn Youngkin want to create one authority to oversee as much of it as possible.

“Let’s focus our efforts this session on building a world class regulatory body and not on one-off bills pushed by special interest groups,” Youngkin told the legislature during his State of the Commonwealth Address earlier this month.

The creation of a Virginia Gaming Commission, or VGC, started with a study in 2022. That led to the hiring of consulting firm Guidehouse and a series of meetings with final recommendations and bills establishing the VGC being proposed this session.

A recent presentation on the final bill was admittedly technical; but details include the consolidation of all the state’s gaming options— except the Virginia Lottery— under the new agency.

“Lottery is productive and it’s in the best interest of Lotter to focus on that alone,” Guardhouse’s Brad Hood told senators at the presentation. “But long-term consolidation could be looked at in the future, other states are going that way.”

Still, the VGC would handle regulation and oversight, report and recommend changes to the legislature and manage problem gaming. To show the state’s “continued commitment” to horse and charitable gaming, executive committees for both will continue to exist. And the existing Horse Racing Commission board will live on to handle non-gaming issues.

But as the debate over skill games and their quasi-legal proliferation continues, Senator Aaron Rouse asked who’s responsible for enforcing the violation of VGA’s regulations.

“When we think about enforcement, we think about this organization focused much more on compliance,” Guidehouse’s Hood replied. “In today’s ecosystem, local law enforcement and the Virginia state Police and others focus on the enforcement.”

So, the agency’s focus on compliance would be making the regulations, but it would still be up to local and state police to bust violators.

Senator Bryce Reeves is carrying the Senate version of the bill, it’s set for its first hearing Monday afternoon.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.