Gambling interests are hoping to strike it rich in the next General Assembly session.
DraftKings and FanDuel want to make sure competitors don’t cut into their business. Pace-O-Matic wants the General Assembly to allow their skill games in convenience stores. And some casinos are worried about competition from online gambling.
According to campaign finance documents posted to the Virginia Public Access Project, the gambling industry donated more than $13 million to candidates and PACs in the election cycle that just wrapped up.
“This kind of blurs the line between expressing a political opinion, which is protected by the Constitution and bribing public officials,” says Alex Keena at Virginia Commonwealth University. “The fact that you can spend that much money; it raises all sorts of concerns about the integrity of our democracy and corruption in the policymaking process.”
