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With sports betting, casinos and other forms of gaming now legal, Virginia’s problem gambling prevention coordinator wants to make sure the state enjoys the financial benefits from gaming but not at the expense of people experiencing harm.
To do that, the Virginia General Assembly this year created the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Advisory Committee.
“My hope is that this committee … helps us establish really good relationships and allows us to work together to allow businesses to establish themselves and do well but also keep the public as safe as can be,” committee chair Anne Rogers told VIXIO GamblingCompliance in an interview on Wednesday (July 5).
Rogers said the committee's mandate is to make sure policymakers have all their bases covered when it comes to providing problem gambling services to people who need them, educating them and keeping the state moving forward.
“We want to work together with the [gaming] industry,” she said. “They’re in business to make money; we’re in business to make sure the public is safe.”
The committee’s first official day was Saturday (July 1), but members are not scheduled to meet for the first time until July 18 to begin addressing gambling-related resources in Virginia and how they are spent to meet the state’s needs for treatment and education.
“My hope for all of us is to come up with how frequently this group needs to meet and maybe establish some guidelines for the group, “said Rogers, who is problem gambling prevention coordinator at the state's Office of Behavioral Health Wellness.
The agency oversees addiction and mental health issues in Virginia.
Republican Senator Bryce Reeves, who is seeking a fourth-term in the Virginia Senate, sponsored Senate Bill 836, which created the committee. Reeves said he felt obligated to create the advisory panel to ensure that young people were protected, especially those between the ages of 18 and 25.
The measure was passed unanimously by both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly during this year’s session before being signed into law by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Reeves' bill directs the committee to work with mental health and problem gaming experts in Virginia on “efforts to reduce the negative effects of problem gambling.”
Both Reeves and Democratic Delegate Paul Krizek are scheduled to speak to the group prior to their first meeting about their vision for the advisory committee. Krizek was the sponsor of the companion bill, HB 1465, in the House of Delegates during this year’s legislative session.
Virginia legalized commercial casinos in 2020 in five cities — Richmond, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville and Bristol. Since then, facilities have opened in Bristol, Portsmouth and Danville, while Richmond city officials are moving forward with a second ballot referendum this year on a $565m project.
A separate gaming law in 2020 also legalized retail and mobile sports betting in the state. There are now 16 licensed sports-betting apps operational state-wide, according to the Virginia Lottery. A further bill passed during the 2020 session authorized interactive lottery or iLottery games.
Prior to approving sports betting and commercial casinos, former Democratic Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill in April 2018 that allowed the owner of Colonial Downs to operate historic horseracing machines (HHR) at the racetrack and at as many as ten off-track betting (OTB) facilities.
Other committee members include Dr. Carolyn Hawley, who is executive director of the Virginia Council on Problem Gambling (VGCP); Kelly Gee, executive director of the Virginia Lottery; and David Lermond, executive secretary with the Virginia Racing Commission.
As for the committee, Hawley said she believes “that building a comprehensive state-wide initiative to prevent and treat problem gambling requires having various stakeholders together to discuss the needs so we can better address them.”
“Which I believe is the aim of this group,” Hawley told VIXIO.
All existing forms of gaming will be studied by the committee, including horseracing, charitable gaming, lottery operations, sports betting and casinos.
Virginia also passed a bill in 2023 mandating gambling education in public schools. House Bill 1108, sponsored by Democratic Delegate Sam Rasoul, requires instruction concerning gambling and addiction to be provided in schools as prescribed by the Board of Education.
According to the 2022 VCPG annual report, calls to the council's gambling helpline continue to increase year after year, with 8,780 calls being made for a 56.7 percent growth in call volume from 2021.
Of those calls, 860 were from state residents actively seeking help with problem gambling. That was an increase of 20 percent from 2021.
The survey found most of those calls were from people struggling with slot machines at a casino or racetrack, followed by sports betting, skill-based games or grey-market machines, lottery scratch-off tickets, internet gaming, and table games at casinos.
The VCPG notes that problem gambling encompasses all gambling behavior patterns that compromise, disrupt or damage personal, family or vocational pursuits.
The Virginia Lottery administers the state’s Voluntary Exclusion Program, which allows people to exclude themselves from many forms of gaming, including sports betting, casinos, lottery games and all activities overseen by the Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs and the Virginia Racing Commission.
Currently, the program has 717 people enrolled. Through the exclusion program, individuals can self-exclude for a period of two years, five years or a lifetime.
