In Case You Missed It: Skill games and casinos are a threat to affordability in Virginia

By Rhena Hicks, Freedom Virginia

Gov. Abigail Spanberger has made her mission unmistakably clear: She intends to make Virginia a place where we can all afford to live and work. Voters across the commonwealth embraced that message, and it now rightly guides the debate as legislators have returned to Richmond for the 2026 legislative session.

To make Virginia more affordable for hardworking people, we need to relieve the burden of high housing, energy, child care and health care costs. Creating a Virginia where people can afford to live where they want and where regular expenses aren’t crippling requires major new investments from the General Assembly, especially in the wake of massive, reckless federal cuts that have harmed our economy.

Yet, at the start of the legislative session, a troubling contradiction is emerging. Even as the governor and legislative leaders advance proposals to ease financial pressure on Virginians, some continue to push the legalization of so-called “skill games” — illegal gambling machines that operate under a misleading label but function exactly like casino slot machines — and for the development of casinos in localities that do not want them.

Something all policymakers should consider this session is whether their proposals will truly make life more affordable for Virginians. Legalizing “skill” games and advancing unwanted casinos would do the opposite. They are distractions, and any attempts to move them forward this session would contradict the affordability mandate and set a bad precedent for respecting voter opinion.

Voters have been outspoken about their opposition to “skill” games and casinos. A June 2024 poll conducted by Lake Research showed that more than half of Virginia voters viewed “skill” games negatively. That unpopularity is driven by the brazen nature of how predatory they are; Freedom Virginia in 2024 released data showing that 70% of skill games were placed in zip codes with household incomes below the state median of $87,249 during a brief period of legalization from 2020 to 2021.

Residents of Tysons Corner and Fairfax County have also grown increasingly opposed to the casino proposal, with polling conducted by Global Strategies Group showing opposition rising from 58% in January 2025 to 75% in October. When we consider what solutions voters want to make life more affordable, it is abundantly clear that nobody wants this.

Any second spent deliberating these items this session is one second less to spend on measures to lower the cost of energy, expand access to paid leave, or make it cheaper to rent or buy a home. Virginia is already facing a nearly $4 billion budget gap driven largely by federal cuts to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.

When investments in teacher pay and affordable child care are added into the equation, the budget gap only grows — and by billions. If legislators are interested in these gaming measures for their ability to generate revenue to plug gaping holes left by federal cuts, these are not the answer. Even if “skill” games and casinos brought in their highest projected revenue, it would still only be an 8% drop in the nearly $5 billion bucket needed to fund a Virginia that hardworking people can afford.

For those that do support gaming, there is an alternative, pragmatic and pro-affordability path policymakers can take this year: creating a Virginia Gaming Commission that can streamline Virginia’s gaming oversight and consumer protection into one agency that can better study what the future of our gaming marketplace should look like after rapid expansion over the last five years.

Policymakers can either stand by their commitment to create a Virginia that hardworking people can afford and reject “skill” games and unwanted casinos, or they can undermine that promise by allowing predatory actors to operate freely in communities across Virginia.

Rhena Hicks of Norfolk is the co-executive director of Freedom Virginia.