On Third Reading today is a terrible bill that would allow Virginians to gamble on Virginia’s college sports. Current Virginia law allows for sports betting, but Virginia residents are prohibited from betting on any game where a Virginia school is playing. This new law would remove that exception and it is a bad idea being pushed by Senate Democrats. Let’s hope the full Senate will vote to reject this bill today.
Last year was the first time Virginians could sign-on to a sportsbook and place bets. When Virginia residents sign-up, with say a major online sportsbook such as BetMGM, they must first pass an authentication process to prove residency. Then they can bet on nearly everything. From all the professional sports leagues in America, to small leagues around the world, the possibilities are nearly limitless.
Virginians can even bet on college sports, but one of the few exceptions for us in the commonwealth is we can’t bet on VCU or UVA and/or we can’t bet against William & Mary or Virginia Tech. And that’s fine; we don’t need to. BetMGM has more than enough games each day to bankrupt every one of us.
Virginia’s new sports betting law has been a huge success. The revenue has exceeded expectations.
From US Gaming Review–
“To date, handle in Virginia totals nearly $2.8 billion. Excluding January 2021, when the market was online open for just 11 days, the handle averaged $273.6 million per month over 10 months. A December handle that meets or exceeds that average would be more than enough to break the $3 billion handle mark.”
That’s a lot of money. There is no need to fix something that is not broken.
We shouldn’t bet on college sports anyways. Professional sports enjoy big money. Those athletes can’t be bought by any Arnold Rothsteins of today. College kids, on the other hand, are much more susceptible to the temptations of big money gamblers. There aren’t any really pressing examples to share, but the film Blue Chips isn’t entirely fiction either.
Gambling on college offers no benefit to collegiate sports, no benefit to the commonwealth, and no benefit to the game itself.
Please contact your State Senator right away encouraging them to vote Nay on SB 576.
