A state Senate committee is advancing another attempt to repeal Virginia’s ban on so-called “skill games.”

Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, last year sponsored a bill that proposed repealing a 2020 law that had reclassified the pay-to-play slots-style betting machines as illegal gambling, and instead tax them. The bill passed both legislative chambers but was vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin after the General Assembly voted down a slate of amendments Youngkin had proposed that would have kept the machines illegal throughout Isle of Wight and most of Surry counties due to their proximity to the Rivers Casino in Portsmouth and Colonial Downs in New Kent County.

This year, the attempt at legalizing the devices is coming from the other side of the aisle.

Sen. Christie New Craig, R-Chesapeake, last month filed Senate Bill 1323, which proposes a $1,200 monthly tax on each device that would be paid into a new “Virginia Gaming Commerce Regulation Fund” that would distribute the revenue to fund K-12 schools. It advanced from the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology by a 9-6 vote on Jan. 22 and will next head to the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations.

Sens. Emily Jordan, R-Isle of Wight, Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, Rouse, Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Woodbridge, New Craig, and Angelia Williams Graves, D-Norfolk, each voted at the Jan. 22 committee meeting to advance the bill, while Sens. Adam Ebbing, D-Alexandria, Jeremy McPike, D-Woodbridge, Todd Pillion, R-Abingdon, Christopher Head, R-Roanoke, Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Richmond, and Danica Room, D-Manassas, opposed it.

The bill would direct the Virginia Lottery Board to develop regulations by June 30, 2026, governing the registration and taxation of the machines and authorize the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Authority to grant provisional registration starting this year.

The bill proposes replacing the term “skill game” with “electronic gaming device,” defining the latter as any machine requiring the insertion of a coin, currency or token to play a game where the outcome is “determined by the predominant skill of the player” rather than pure chance.

The bill proposes to cap the number of registered gaming machines at 30,000 statewide and  impose a fine of up to $25,000 per unregistered device, which if enforced by a locality would be paid into that locality’s general fund. It would bar a licensee from using the term “casino” in its entity name and would set a maximum of three devices per location except at truck stops and licensed alcohol retailers, which would be permitted up to seven devices.

New Craig and Sens. J.D. “Danny” Diggs, R-Yorktown, Bryce Reeves, R-Fredericksburg, and Bill Stanley, R-Moneta, had co-sponsored a similar bill, dubbed SB 6007, during a special mid-2024 General Assembly session, though it wasn’t acted upon. That bill would have allowed counties and cities – but not towns – to opt out of legalization via a ballot referendum by resolution of a board of supervisors or city council, or by petition of at least 5,000 or 2.5% of registered voters, whichever is smaller.

The opt-out verbiage wasn’t included in the initial 2025 version of New Craig’s bill but was added to the substitute bill the General Laws and Technology Committee advanced, this time with towns included in the availability of the opt-out.

Isle of Wight only began enforcing the 2020 ban last January after a three-year legal battle ended in late 2023 with Virginia’s Supreme Court lifting an injunction against enforcement. Emporia truck stop owner Hermie Sadler, who’d run against Jordan in the 2023 Republican primary for her Senate seat, sued the state in 2021 just as the ban would have taken effect, arguing it gave unfair advantage to the handful of casinos the state had authorized in Virginia’s larger cities. He’d secured the now-lifted injunction in Greenville County Circuit Court in 2022 with the help of Stanley, who’d acted as Sadler’s attorney.