Skill games support thousands of small businesses across Virginia, helping them make ends meet in tough times. Additionally, once regulated, skill games will bring in an estimated $336 million in new, much-needed annual tax revenue to the Commonwealth. Unlike gambling, a skillful player can win every time they play a skill game. Bipartisan, commonsense legislation has been filed that will provide long-overdue, much-needed clarity for law enforcement, small business owners, and the commonwealth alike. We can’t let another legislative session pass by without a solution. The time to act is now!
Virginia Skill Game Coalition Members: -Virginia Merchants and Amusement Coalition (VA MAC) -7-Eleven -National Coalition of Associations of 7-Eleven Franchisees -Virginia Amusement Coalition (VAC) -Virginia Asian American Store Owners Association (VAASOA) -Virginia Petroleum and Convenience Marketers Association (VPCMA)

As a Virginia small business owner, I am writing to respectfully urge you to sign Senate Bill 661, commonsense skill game legislation. 

Properly regulated, legal skill games provide essential supplemental income to thousands of small businesses, like mine. We are primarily restaurants, bars, convenience stores, and truck stops - retailers that operate under tight margins amidst rising costs. Skill games have been a lifeline for our small businesses, but a lack of clarity in the law has meant good actors are punished while bad actors thrive.

SB 661 establishes a clear, enforceable regulatory structure for skill games. It builds on years of work by grassroots supporters and bipartisan lawmakers to replace legal uncertainty with clarity. It provides law enforcement with the guidance they have repeatedly requested. Most importantly, it will eliminate the growth of illegal gambling across the state. If passed, SB 661 will reduce the number of machines in the state from an estimated 90,000 illegal slot machines to 25,000 legal, regulated, taxed, and certified games of skill.

The legislation would generate $350 million annually in new revenue for Virginia. This is a tax that small businesses and other members of the skill game industry gladly support.

SB 661 is the product of years of negotiations and bipartisan compromise, and I respectfully ask you to sign the legislation as passed.

SUPPORT VIRGINIA’S SMALL BUSINESSES