Virginia may be the next state to legalize casinos, and five cities will likely have facilities soon. A Staet Senate committee advanced legislation on February 4 which would allow voters in Richmond, Norfolk, Bristol, Portsmouth, and Danville to hold a referendum on whether they wish to approve casinos in their cities. A similar bill is expected to advance in the Virginia House as well.

Virginia is one of just a small number of states that actually forbids these types of casinos from operating. However, there has been a number of moves in recent years that the government has made toward legalizing them.

The first move occurred in 2018 when the Colonial Downs horse-racing track in New Kent County was purchased and set to reopen in 2019. The Chicago-based group that purchased the track, Revolutionary Racing, had planned to bring back racing to the only such track within the state.

This sale likely occurred because the General Assembly had already voted to allow gambling at the Colonial Downs track and approved off-track betting sites throughout the state. This created the possibility of casinos at locations across Virginia, opening the door to this inevitability.