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Five Republican Virginia senators who supported an effort to legalize online casinos each received $100,000 in campaign contributions from the Sports Betting Alliance after the state’s 2026 legislative session ended.
The payments came weeks after lawmakers failed to agree on how Virginia’s iGaming market should operate.
The General Assembly had already cleared separate online casino bills in both chambers. Senate Bill 118 and House Bill 161 differed on key details, including tax rates, licensing costs and restrictions on credit card use. A conference committee was unable to reconcile the two versions before the legislature adjourned in mid-March.
The result was a stalled legalization effort. The campaign money kept moving.
Five Senators, $500,000
The contributions were reported by Virginia journalist David Poole, a former executive director of the Virginia Public Access Project, in his Poole Report newsletter.
The five senators were Christie Craig of Chesapeake City, Danny Diggs of Yorktown, Emily Jordan of Smithfield, Todd Pillion of Abingdon and Glen Sturtevant of Midlothian.
Each received $100,000 from the Sports Betting Alliance, an industry advocacy group whose members include DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, BetMGM and bet365.
For Jordan, the payment stood out even against the scale of political fundraising in Richmond. Poole reported that it was four times larger than the biggest corporate contribution she had received during her nine years in Virginia politics.
Jordan maintained that outside political money would not determine how she votes.
The alliance defended its spending as part of its broader campaign for regulated gambling markets. Its political contributions are not limited to one political party, and the group says it backs lawmakers who support consumer protections and responsible gambling.
The timing is what gives the contributions their political significance.
Virginia’s iGaming legislation had already become a battleground among gambling companies. Caesars Entertainment, Hard Rock, Boyd Gaming and Rush Street Gaming were broadly supportive of expansion, while Cordish Companies opposed legalizing online casinos.
With no final bill, the state remains outside the regulated iGaming market.
The Argument Over Offshore Gambling
The industry’s case for legalization rests partly on what Virginians are already doing online.
The Sports Betting Alliance argues that residents can access offshore casino sites and sweepstakes-style gambling platforms without the safeguards attached to regulated operators. A licensed market, it argues, would bring those activities under state oversight, taxation and consumer-protection rules.
Opponents reject that premise.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling, which campaigns against iGaming expansion, argues that legal online casinos do not necessarily displace illegal gambling. Its position is that legalization can instead make gambling more widespread and increase the amount consumers ultimately lose.
That disagreement is still unresolved in Virginia.
What is clear is that the state came close to approving online casinos in 2026, while the lawmakers who supported the push received substantial financial backing from an industry group seeking a regulated market.
The legislation may have stalled in Richmond. The political campaign around it did not.
Source: pechanga.net
