In Virginia, sports gambling is legal, as long as the teams involved are not colleges within the commonwealth.
A bill at the General Assembly, Senate Bill 124, aims to change that and allow adults to wager on such teams as Virginia Tech football or University of Virginia basketball.
Some legislators worry such a measure would leave college athletes susceptible to taking bribes and manipulating the outcome of games. But Sen. Schuyler VanVaklenburg, D-Henrico, the bill’s sponsor, said it is safer to legalize gambling and regulate it, because people are already wagering on Virginia’s teams from other states and through illegal means.
“You can ban it, but people are still going to do it,” VanValkenburg said. “The fear that this is going to corrupt or put pressure on Virginia athletes, that’s already there. We’re already living in that world.”
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Some type of gambling on sports is now legal in 38 states, according to Forbes.
Since sports gambling became legal in Virginia in 2021, it has exploded into a huge business. Virginia residents wagered $639 million on sports in November, the highest yet in a single month, according to BetVirginia.com, a site that promotes gambling in the state.
When the General Assembly approved gambling on sports in 2020, Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax, warned that if college athletes could bet on their own games, they would have motivation to alter their outcome.
But VanValkenburg believes there is already pressure on athletes to accept bribes. People living outside Virginia can bet on Virginia college games — North Carolina, Maryland and Washington allow sports betting. And it isn’t difficult for a Virginia resident to place a bet through a friend in another state or through an illegal bookie.
Plus, some legal bets placed in Virginia indirectly involve state colleges, VanValkenburg said. If a person bets on the University of North Carolina to win the ACC basketball championship, he or she has bet against the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.
“People are still gambling on Virginia athletes legally when they gamble on other teams,” VanValkenburg said.
The bill would not allow all types of bets on Virginia colleges. It would continue to ban proposition betting, or prop bets, in which a bettor places money on a specific outcome, such as a quarterback throwing three touchdowns in a game.
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