Gambling has not been a major campaign topic in a Virginia governor’s race shaped by federal policy, taxation, and healthcare. Still, either current Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears or former Democratic U.S. House Rep. Abigail Spanberger will help shape gambling policy from the governor’s mansion next year.
Here are the four major gaming issues facing the commonwealth’s next governor.
The two parties have taken different positions on the multi-year question of skill-based gaming.
Former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed a 2020 bill that banned these machines, which act like slots and are in hundreds of truck stops statewide. The ban has survived multiple years of legal challenges but was written in such a way that new types of machines with slightly different rules have been allowed to operate.
