40-0.
That’s how unanimously the Virginia Senate voted when it passed a bill prohibiting the use of the phrase “Virginia is for Bettors.”
This move by the legislative body was met with a bemused indignance by the people at VirginiaIsForBettors.com, which is a subsidiary of the Gambling.com Group.
CEO Charles Gillespie commented on the matter: “Virginia’s state legislature made it clear that Virginia is for bettors when they legalized sports betting in April 2020 with a strong regulatory regime that offered consumers a choice of online sportsbooks. We will of course respect the will of Virginia’s lawmakers.”
The name – which is a play of the cherished tourism slogan “Virginia is for Lovers” – was a clever ruse for the website to attract customers. It seemed to work too. Gambling has proven to be popular in the Old Dominion. Since mobile sports betting went live in January 2021, over $3.2bn has been wagered in the state. December alone saw a total handle of $427m.
None of that mattered to Virginia lawmakers, who wanted to make sure that the image of the state was not made sordid by any overt association with the world of betting.
In January, Bill SB96 – as it is known – explicitly banned the use of the name “Virginia” as well as “Commonwealth” in advertising that serves the gaming industry, so it wasn’t too hard of a jump for lawmakers to throw “Virginia is for Bettors” into the mix of banned words, which they did earlier this week.
Having passed the Senate, Bill SB96 now makes its way to the house. If it does well enough there, it heads to the desk of the governor.
If it makes it through all such hurdles, companies using this phrase in gambling advertising would incur a fine of $50,000.
