Guide to Virginia Gambling Age: Casinos, Sports Betting & More

Gambling laws in Virginia fall within the middle of the conservative to liberal spectrum when compared to other US states. While it could never be considered liberal in its historical approach it could neither be called conservative when compared to states such as Utah or Hawaii. The state has maintained a balancing act of honouring both conservative and liberal views when it comes to placing wagers, although as a whole the gambling industry in Virginia has grown over the years.

Holding such an important place within America’s history, being the first land to come under colonial Britain’s control, while also being the birth state of eight US presidents, the legal approach Virginia takes is always of great interest to other states across the US. While other Eastern Coast states such as New Jersey have taken an incredibly liberal approach to laws quickly legalizing new forms of gambling, Virginia has been far more tentative in their adoption of new forms of betting money and prefers to wait and see how they progress in other states before legalizing them in Virginia. For now, take a look at the table below to see the Virginia gambling age for the state’s limited legal gaming options.

In the table above you will see the legal gambling ages for each form of legalized real money gaming in Virginia. As illustrated in the table, the age for most of the forms in Virginia is 18. If there is not a legal gambling age then that form is most likely illegal or still in the process of being legalized and no legal age has been allocated yet.

On this page we will discuss in detail the gambling laws of Virginia, specifically the age requirements applied to each form of wagering allowed within the state’s borders. We will also discuss the history of gambling within the state and highlight any upcoming law reforms that might be on the horizon.

Casino Age in Virginia

Historically there has been no commercial or tribal casino industry within Virginia. Virginia while having a rich history with gambling, has never had a casino industry – early settlers were known to have wagered and gambled amongst each other in social games but this was before the onset of legal restrictions.

Commercial casino interests have long been lobbying to have an industry set up within Virginia’s borders – however, the state’s legislature has historically not been receptive to such lobbying. There has long been an argument that should neighbouring states to Virginia adopt a commercial casino industry then a domino effect would take place and Virginia itself would allow for a commercial industry to be established. In good news for Virginia’s casino fans, it appears this domino effect has worked.

In March of 2020, after many years of discussions within the state’s legislature, Virginia’s House of Delegates passed a bill legalizing casino gambling in the cities of Portsmouth, Richmond, Norfolk, Danville and Bristol. In accordance with the vote that was undertaken the regulation of the new commercial casino industry will fall within the remit of the state’s Lottery Board.

The rationale for finally allowing a commercial casino industry in Virginia was that the establishment of such an industry would have a massive economic impact on the cities that will host them. Further, the bill set out a tiered tax structure that would range from 15-28%, meaning that the industry would also provide a huge boost for the state’s income as well.

In accordance with the bill, each individual city that has been granted the right to operate a commercial casino industry will be required to hold a referendum questioning whether to allow casino gambling in the state or not – this referendum is scheduled to take place across the five cities during the general elections in November 2020.

Once referendums are held it will then be up to the state to define the finer details such as the legal gambling age required to gamble at a commercial casino within the state. Many other states across the US require that individuals be 21 years old to gamble at a casino. This is used as the legal casino age as it is the same as the legal drinking age across the US, as casinos traditionally serve alcohol this allows casinos to avoid any issues with serving alcohol to underage minors.

What are The Casinos In Virginia that accept 18 year Olds?

As there are currently no casinos in operation in Virginia, there are no casinos that allow entry to 18-year-olds. They can still enjoy other forms of gambling in Virginia such as the state lottery, Daily Fantasy Sports, bingo and charity real money events.

To learn the legal ages for each form of gaming considered legal in Virginia take a look at our easy to read gambling ages table at the top of this page.

Sports Betting In Virginia

Historically Virginia has not been the friendliest of states for those who are a fan of sports betting. For many years, most likely due to its colonial history, Virginia has been quite strict regarding its ban on gambling. However, after years of legislators and state representatives pursuing bills and legislation to allow sports betting within Virginia they have finally had a breakthrough.

In 2019 a house bill was filed that proposed the legalization of retail and online sports betting with the Virginia State Lottery Commission as the regulator and oversight committee. With a large focus placed on online sports betting this bill was approved by the state legislature and passed into Virginia state law on the 1 July 2020.

While sports betting is officially legalized in Virginia the regulations and timeline for establishing the rules and regulations surrounding sports betting operators are still being ironed out. With a lot of pressure being put on the Lottery Commission to expedite the set-up of sports betting operators in Virginia, the COVID-19 Pandemic and importance of attention to detail when setting up the rulemaking process for the governance of sports betting means that sports betting will likely only go live in early 2021.

One form of sports wagering Virginia residents can already enjoy is pari-mutuel betting on horse races at the state’s solo racetrack and also at licensed off-track facilities. Pari-mutuel betting has long been a favoured past time of Virginia residents and has been legal in the state since 1989 and the Virginia gambling age for this betting type is 18.

One final form of sports wagering that is also legal in Virginia is Daily Fantasy Sports. Daily Fantasy Sports has been legal in the state since 2016, when Virginia became the first state in the US to officially legalize Daily Fantasy Sports. We will discuss Daily Fantasy Sports in more detail later on this page.

Virginia Online Gambling Age

As mentioned earlier, while the majority of the Eastern Coast states in the US have adopted a more liberal approach to gambling in recent years Virginia has been slow to adopt more modern forms of gaming. Therefore, it will come as no surprise that there is no online wagering industry in the Old Dominion State. With Virginia only just legalizing land-based casinos it would appear that there is still a way to go before it adopts the more liberal gambling laws of neighbours West Virginia and New Jersey.

As there is no online gaming industry currently in operation in Virginia there is no online legal gambling age for the state. Once the newly legalized sports betting laws come into full force, most likely in early 2021, there will be an online sports betting industry – which could mean that further forms of online gambling are legalized if the state sees the benefit in doing so.

While online casinos are currently considered illegal in Virginia residents may notice that they have access to casino sites run by offshore operators – while these websites might seem appealing to those residents who want to gamble online they should be avoided. As these websites are run by offshore operators they are not licensed or regulated within the US, therefore should any Virginia resident-run into any issues with the websites they would have no recourse against them under US consumer protection laws. Further, as online gambling is considered illegal in Virginia individuals caught playing in a casino websites risk being prosecuted.

Poker Gambling Age

Playing any form of poker is illegal in Virginia unless the game is hosted in a private home and no rake is taken by those hosting the game. As there are no official legal ways to play poker in Virginia there is no legal gambling age for poker in Virginia.

In 2010 local poker enthusiasts trying to challenge the game’s legal status by filing a lawsuit against the state after a local charitable poker room was shut down. The argument put forward was that poker is a game of skill and not a game of chance and therefore not governed by the state’s gambling laws, while the judge agreed that there was a lot of skill involved the fact that there was even the slightest element of uncertainty is enough to make the game a game of chance and therefore illegal under Virginia State law.

While the plaintiff and then 2019 case appealed the judge’s initial decision and it was bought before Virginia Supreme Coolidge The Supreme Court refused to issue a ruling and dismissed the case. To date poker remains illegal within Virginia, however now that seem gambling has been recently made legal there is all hope that the casinos will allow traditional casino table games including poker to be hosted under their roofs. But Virginia residents will have to wait until the first casino licenses are issued to see if poker will fall within casino remits.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Virginia was the first state in the US to actively legislate to legalize Daily Fantasy Sports to operation within the state borders. the laws sit out by Virginia’s legislature require that all Daily Fantasy Sports operators register with the Department of Agriculture and customer services in order that an annual audit is made of each daily fantasy sports operator, and so that each operator pays a $50,000 registration fee. the law also states but the minimum age to participate in daily fantasy sports contests is 18 in Virginia.

Not long after Daily Fantasy Sports was legalized in Virginia the game was classified as a game of skill by a federal court which has further encouraged more US states to allow a more open attitude to Daily Fantasy Sports. looking at the impact of legalizing Daily Fantasy Sports in 2016, it appears that this legalization Opens the floodgates for further more modern forms of gambling to be legalized within the Old Dominion state. with sports betting being legalized in 2019 and commercial casinos finally being given the go-ahead in 2020 Daily Fantasy Sports really paved the way for opening up Virginia’s gambling economy.

Legal Age to Play the Lottery in Virginia

Virginia has a long history with the state lottery, a state lottery was legalized in Virginia in 1987 and has gone on to become extremely popular over the years that over $1 billion has been raised for state beneficiaries through the sales of Lotto tickets, and from 2000 onwards all proceeds of the lottery have been put towards education purposes within Virginia.

The legal age to participate in the state lottery In Virginia is 18 years old. Virginia players are able to take part in some of the biggest games available in the US including Mega Millions, Powerball and Cash4Life. another element that Virginian residents are able to take advantage of is an online lottery. Virginia is one of the only states in the US to have legalized an online lottery, the online format allows players to purchase tickets via the lottery’s official website or even by using an app which has been optimized for both Android and iOS.

The online lottery has been Widely embraced by Virginia State residents and through it being rigorously regulated it has been widely accepted by many state officials as well. in terms of any future legal developments for the state lottery, it doesn’t look like there any changes on the horizon Virginia’s lottery is incredibly liberal and appears to be paving the way for other states.

Virginia Gambling Laws & Future Outlook

Virginia’s state laws can be found within the states constitution under codes 18 and 59. These codes defined gambling as, ‘making placing or receiving any bit or wager of money or other things of value, dependent upon the result of any game, contest, or events the outcome of which is uncertain or a matter of chance’. As discussed above in the various sections detailing the legal status of each form of popular In Virginia this broad definition of gambling has been declared to apply to all popular forms of gaming. All that matters is that a slight form of uncertainty or chance is involved within any form of wagering for it to be classed as gambling and fall within the remit of these laws.

In terms of Virginia’s current gambling economy, it is relatively small compared to its neighbours as for many years the only legal way to play with real money allowed where the state lottery and charities from which no revenue is gained. however, with the opening up of laws and the legalization of sports medicine and commercial casino gambling Virginia’s economy is likely to skyrocket.

There are taxes applied to winnings in Virginia, as is the case with most states gambling winnings are considered personal income and do the full text at each individual’s personal income tax bracket. As with most states Virginia State lottery also has additional taxes applicable to lottery wins over a specific size, In Virginia, if you went over $5000 then you will have to allocate 25% force federal tax and an additional 4% which will be withheld as a state tax.

Looking to the future for Virginia’s gambling landscape there are major changes ahead. Both sports betting in commercial casino gaming have recently been legalized within the state and it in the process of being officially set up. as it appears Virginia is becoming more open to modern forms of gambling it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the Old Dominion state will also see the legalization of online formats in the near future. If this article was interesting to you, there are many more available in our legal gambling ages in the USA overview, where we go over each state’s legal situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

We hope that this page has provided you with a good introduction to the gambling laws in Virginia. should you have any additional questions with answered the most frequently asked questions in the section below.