How to get a gambling licence in Virginia: by tender

The Virginia Lottery, an independent agency headed by a Director, and its seven-member Virginia Lottery Board regulate sports betting, land-based casino gaming and, since 1 July 2026, fantasy contests. The Director issues sports betting permits and the Board makes the regulations and hears appeals.

• There is no separate advertising regulator. The statute sets four conditions on every permit holder's advertising, 11VAC5-70-240 adds the detailed rules, and the Lottery enforces them.
• There is no separate gambling AML authority. The Lottery supervises AML at permit-holder level through internal control standards, and the federal Bank Secrecy Act rules apply as federal law.
• One permit covers all sports betting the Director permits, every bet type in the statutory definition including parlays, in-play and proposition bets. There is no per-product permit.
• As of 7 November 2026 the Lottery lists 10 approved sports betting permit holders, 15 approved suppliers and nine approved testing laboratories.
• The Virginia State Police Gaming Enforcement Unit, established in 2024, has criminal enforcement authority only. It states that gambling is lawful only where the Commonwealth specifically authorises and regulates it.

Laws that apply

• Code of Virginia, Title 58.1, chapter 40, article 2 (Sports Betting, ss. 58.1-4030 to 58.1-4048) and article 1 (Virginia Lottery)
• 11VAC5-70 (Sports Betting), 11VAC5-80 (Sports Betting Consumer Protection Program) and 11VAC5-60 (Self-Exclusion Program), Virginia Lottery Board
• Code of Virginia, Title 58.1, chapter 42 (Fantasy Contests, ss. 58.1-4200 ff., in force 1 July 2026)
• Code of Virginia, Title 18.2, chapter 8, article 1 (Gambling, ss. 18.2-325 ff.), the general offences
• Code of Virginia, Title 58.1, chapter 41 (Casino Gaming) and 11VAC5-90, land-based
• Acts of Assembly 2026, chapter 926 (HB 515), which bars credit-card funding of sports betting accounts from 1 July 2026

Virginia permits sports betting platforms for a three-year term, and the Director may issue only a fixed number of them. A company with no casino or franchise connection applies for a platform permit in the annual window.

• Cap: the Director must issue no fewer than four and no more than 12 sports betting permits. Permits issued to a major league sports franchise or facility operator, or to a casino applicant, and permits that are revoked or expire, do not count toward that range (s. 58.1-4032 D 2).
• As of 7 November 2026 the Lottery lists 10 approved permit holders. How many of them count toward the cap of 12 is not published.
• One brand per permit holder. A permit holder may run its platform under a brand other than its own but may not hold itself out under more than one brand, and must display the brand conspicuously. The law does not count or limit domains or websites.
• A permit may not be sublicensed, conveyed or transferred without the Director's approval and a $200,000 transfer fee.
• The statutory preferences for Virginia major league franchises and casino applicants applied only to permits issued before 1 July 2025, so they no longer apply to a new platform permit.
• Fantasy contest permits have no statutory cap. Renewal is a fresh application, and a Department action on a fantasy permit is reviewed in the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond.

No Virginia entity, office, director or minimum share capital is required. What decides an application is the character, honesty and financial ability of the applicant and of every principal, on clear and convincing evidence.

• Any individual, corporation, partnership, association, LLC, trust, joint venture or other legal or commercial entity may apply. The law has no EU or EEA rule and does not bar a non-US company; the same application and background investigation apply, and principals who are not United States citizens undergo an international criminal history check.
• A subsidiary applicant must state that its parent will fully and absolutely guarantee its performance for at least the first year (11VAC5-70-50 B 9).
• No minimum share capital is set. The Director weighs adequate capitalisation and financial ability, and the permit holder must hold a player-fund reserve of at least $500,000 and carry insurance (section 5).
• A principal is anyone who, alone or with immediate family, owns or controls 5% or more of a permit holder or can vote 5% or more, and anyone in a managerial capacity for the platform, which the regulation names as the permit holder's chief executive officer, the platform supplier's chief executive officer if applicable, and any individual with ultimate responsibility for operating the platform in Virginia. Each needs a principal licence.
• A permit may be refused for a felony, a crime of moral turpitude or an offence of dishonesty or breach of trust within 10 years before the application, a knowingly false statement of material fact, a gaming licence suspended or revoked in another jurisdiction, a default on a debt due to the Commonwealth, or an incomplete application. The Director may waive grounds where denial would limit the number of applicants contrary to the Commonwealth's interest.
• The permit holder must keep an operating account and an escrow account for taxes and fees, each at an FDIC-insured institution licensed to transact business in Virginia, and hold its reserve funds at such an institution.
• A vendor must be a person within the Commonwealth, and sports betting employees work within Virginia. A supplier applicant must show registration with the Virginia State Corporation Commission and a certificate of good standing.
• For fantasy contests the Department may deny a permit if the applicant is not qualified to do business in Virginia or not subject to the jurisdiction of the Virginia courts (s. 58.1-4203 C 6).

The Director of the Virginia Lottery receives the application through the Lottery's online licensing system, and the statute sets the clock: a decision within 90 days of receipt.

• Permit applications are accepted only in an annual period from 15 May to 31 May, closing at 11:59:59 p.m., and a late application is not considered. The initial period of 15 to 31 October 2020 is closed. Licences and registrations for suppliers, vendors, principals and employees may be filed at any time.
• The applicant designates one individual, a compliance officer or similar, who uploads the documents. Applicants ask for portal credentials by email to the Lottery's licensing mailbox, and the Lottery issues them after it determines the qualifiers. Paper applications are not accepted.
• Fees are paid by wire transfer, and investigations do not begin until the required fees are received. The account representative resource guide lists the documents by licence type and the forms to be notarised.
• The application has two parts: a narrative plan and the information for the background investigation. The narrative covers the applicant's sports betting background and compliance record in other jurisdictions, proposed internal controls, procedures to detect suspicious betting, and the partners or subcontractors it relies on, each of whom files an application and pays fees with it.
• Corporate documents follow: articles and bylaws, ownership and voting lists, and lists of directors and officers, all sworn under penalty of perjury. The applicant includes a public summary the Lottery may release, and authorises access to what it gave any other jurisdiction that licensed it.
• A business plan is required in the form of the narrative. Financial projections are not required as such, but the Director considers the adjusted gross revenue and tax revenue an applicant is expected to generate.
• The Director decides an initial permit application within 90 days of receipt. A deficient application must be completed within 15 days of the notice or it is not considered, and the Director may require initial and additional deposits for investigation costs.
• The Director may issue a temporary or conditional permit to an apparently-qualified applicant, on request and in his sole discretion. It expires 180 days after issue and may be extended once for up to 180 days. By accepting it the applicant waives the right to challenge a final decision, and fees paid are not refunded if the permanent permit is denied.
• A refusal is final unless appealed to the Virginia Lottery Board. The applicant has 15 days to request an informal fact-finding conference and 15 days after the Director's decision to request a Board hearing; the Board's final action is subject to judicial review under the Administrative Process Act.

The fixed fees are $50,000 per principal to apply and $250,000 before the permit issues, with $200,000 to renew every three years. The permit holder also keeps a player-fund reserve and a bond.

• There is no annual licence fee. The renewal fee works out at about $66,667 a year over the three-year term, and there is no minimum annual fee and no minimum tax.
• There is no per-brand, per-domain or per-product fee in the Act or the regulation.
• Each principal application is a $50,000 wire, of which $1,000 is the licence fee and the rest a nonrefundable initial deposit toward the investigation (11VAC5-70-60 E).
• Before a permit issues, the permit holder must be bonded by a surety company entitled to do business in Virginia, or provide another surety, letter of credit or reserve satisfactory to the Director. The bond may not exceed $5 million for a permit holder and $150,000 for suppliers, vendors, principals and employees. The amount set for each permit holder is not published.
• The reserve must be at least $500,000 and at least equal to player-account funds plus pending wagers plus unpaid winnings, held at an FDIC-insured institution licensed in Virginia. It cannot be removed without the Director's written approval, and a deficiency is reported within 24 hours.
• Insurance: $5 million general liability and $15 million errors and omissions.
• Equipment is tested by an approved independent laboratory and the books are audited by a certified public accountant, both at the operator's cost. The law sets no amount for them.
• Application and renewal fees are paid into the Gaming Regulatory Fund, which offsets the Department's investigation and enforcement costs. There is no annual supervisory levy on sports betting and no mandatory charitable contribution.

Virginia taxes the permit holder's adjusted gross revenue at 15%, due monthly to the Department. Winnings are taxed as income, and there is no value-added tax.

• Adjusted gross revenue is gross revenue less four deductions: cash and merchandise paid as winnings together with the value of bonuses and promotions given as an incentive to place a wager; uncollectible receivables, capped at 2% of gross revenue minus cash paid out; for a significant infrastructure limited licensee, the funds paid into the horsemen's purse account; and federal excise taxes on sports betting.
• Bonuses and promotions are deductible with no time limit or cap in the definition. A negative month is carried over to later months, but not against a month more than 12 months after the month it accrued.
• The tax is due monthly, on or before the 20th day of the next calendar month. A permit holder also reports annual wagers, adjusted gross revenue and payouts by 15 January.
• Of the sports betting tax revenue, 2.5% goes to the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund and 97.5% to the general fund.
• The federal excise tax on wagers is 0.25% of the amount of a state-authorised wager and is deductible in adjusted gross revenue.
• Corporate income tax is 6% of Virginia taxable income, in addition to the gambling tax. Virginia has no value-added tax; the sales and use tax is a tax on retail sales of tangible personal property.
• Players: winnings are income. Virginia individual income tax rates are 2% up to $3,000, 3% to $5,000, 5% to $17,000 and 5.75% above that, and a permit holder must issue tax forms to persons who meet the reporting threshold.
• No advertising or sponsorship tax applies to gambling.

Virginia licenses no game provider as such, because it permits sports betting only. A company that runs or controls the platform holds a supplier licence, and the businesses around it register as vendors.

• A supplier needs the licence before it does business with a permit applicant or licensee. No Virginia law recognises a foreign supplier licence or shortens the process for one; experience elsewhere counts only as evidence.
• As of 7 November 2026 the Lottery lists 15 approved suppliers, and a vendor master sheet dated 30 October 2026 with 222 entries, among them affiliate marketers, payment processors, cloud and data-centre businesses.
• The platform, including all equipment and software, goes to an independent testing laboratory the Director has approved before the permit issues. As of 7 November 2026 the Lottery lists nine, including Gaming Laboratories International, BMM Testlabs and NCC Group.
• Virginia names no external technical standard. The functional requirements are in 11VAC5-70-270, and the Director may add specifications by technical bulletin; none is listed on the Lottery's Sports Betting page.
• There is no individual game approval. Sports betting is approved by event, league and bet type through the Director's Bet Directive. An operator asks for a new event or wager at least 72 hours ahead. By statute there are no bets on youth sports, no proposition bets on college sports and no bets on Virginia college sports.
• Geolocation is required: a geofencing system that detects the physical location of the bettor, blocks attempts outside Virginia, monitors dynamically, is kept current in real time against circumvention tools and is reviewed at least every 90 days.
• All software used to offer and process wagers is authenticated at least every 24 hours. Within 90 days after operations start and annually, an approved laboratory or firm assesses system integrity and security.
• No local or mirror server is required and cloud hosting is not prohibited; the instruments set no data-residency rule. Every wager must be initiated and received within Virginia unless federal law allows otherwise, and the Director must be given access to wagering systems and data.
• No source code, game maths or binaries need be submitted, hashed or escrowed. There is no return-to-player rule and no cap on stakes or winnings.
• There is no direct integration with a regulator system and no general real-time transaction feed; suspicious wagering activity is reported to the Director immediately. Records are kept five years, with shorter periods for specific logs.

The minimum age is 21. Identity is recorded when the account opens, credit cards are banned, and one statewide voluntary exclusion list binds every permit holder.

• To open an account the permit holder records legal name, date of birth, residential address, phone number, email, Social Security number or a foreign equivalent, and a government identification document number or another multi-source remote authentication method the Director approves. It keeps the data for five years.
• The accepted funding methods are debit card, electronic bank transfer, online or mobile payment systems, a verified reloadable prepaid card, and winnings or bonuses. Since 1 July 2026 credit cards cannot be used (s. 58.1-4031 D, as amended by chapter 926). Cryptocurrency is neither named nor approved.
• A withdrawal is honoured by the later of five days after receipt or 10 days after submission of any tax paperwork, unless there is a dispute or an investigation. Credit may not be extended to a bettor.
• Player funds are held in trust in a segregated account, or in a special-purpose account run by a separate entity with an independent director.
• The Lottery's voluntary exclusion program lets a person choose two years, five years or lifetime, with one list covering sports betting, casino gaming, fantasy contests, lottery, charitable gaming and horse racing. A permit holder must also honour a request to self-exclude for at least 72 hours.
• Deposit, activity and bet-size limits, pop-up warnings and cooling-off tools must be offered and honoured on request; they are not mandatory for the player. The platform needs a mechanism for the player to take note of the passage of time.
• The website or app must show the toll-free National Problem Gambling Helpline number, a responsible gambling logo approved by the Director, a link to the Virginia Sports Bettors' Bill of Rights, and the minimum age.
• A permit holder must respond to a complaint within 15 days, keep complaints and responses at least four years, and publish its procedures. A player can complain directly to the Lottery, and no independent ADR provider is required.

Advertising by permit holders is allowed under four statutory conditions and the detailed rules in 11VAC5-70-240 and 11VAC5-80-150 and -160, enforced by the Lottery. No pre-approval is required.

• The four conditions: do not target persons under 21, disclose the permit holder, link to or provide addiction resources, and do not mislead. Every advertisement carries a responsible gaming message with the helpline number, except as the Director permits for media such as social media.
• Television, radio, outdoor, online and social media advertising are allowed, with no channel-specific rule and no watershed. Advertisements may not saturate a medium or be placed before an audience presumed mostly under 21, and there is no advertising at schools or on college campuses.
• The phrase "Virginia is for Bettors" is banned, with a civil penalty of up to $50,000. A person who is not a permit holder may not make premises available for internet sports betting; the penalty is up to $10,000 per advertising violation.
• Free bets and welcome offers may be advertised if their material terms are disclosed when advertised, or by a hyperlink where the medium is too small. A new-account offer may not delay full implementation beyond 90 days. No other rule limits wagering requirements.
• The permit holder must give the advertising rules to its marketing contractors, agents and agencies, and may be sanctioned for violations by its suppliers and vendors. An affiliate that meets the vendor definition must be registered with the Lottery.
• Cooperative marketing with a liquor licensee is limited to the premises of a motor sports facility, a major league stadium or a casino, with local zoning compliance. Targeted advertising to self-excluded persons must stop.

Permit holders file tax monthly, commission an annual audit and an annual security assessment, and report suspicious wagering to the Director at once.

• AML controls sit in the permit and its internal control standards: the platform submission and the internal controls must describe the AML compliance standards, and house rules must bar structuring. Virginia requires no local money laundering reporting officer.
• A permit holder must belong to an integrity monitoring association or contract with an approved integrity monitoring system provider, and report breaches of a sports governing body's rules.
• Changes to house rules, internal control standards and the age-verification method need the Director's approval or prior notice. A change of domain or hosting does not.
• The Lottery's register is a set of web pages and PDFs, not a searchable database. Permit holders and suppliers are printed by name only; the vendor master sheet adds entity ID, service permit number, expiry date and services.
• The Director may impose up to $1,000 per violation per day after notice and a hearing, and may suspend, revoke or refuse to renew a permit. The Lottery publishes its settlement agreements; the largest read are $26,000 and $25,000.

The route most online entrants take: a sports betting permit for a platform, applied for in the May window, with the supplier and vendor routes below.

1. 01

   Choose your route

   s. 58.1-4032

   Decide whether you will hold a platform permit yourself or serve permit holders as a supplier or vendor. Online casino and poker have no licence.

2. 02

   Check that a place is open and time the filing

   s. 58.1-4032 D 2

   The Director issues no more than 12 permits and the Lottery lists 10 approved holders. Applications are accepted from 15 May to 31 May each year.

3. 03

   Identify your principals and confirm eligibility

   s. 58.1-4030 · 11VAC5-70-60

   List every owner of 5% or more and the managers of the platform, check for a disqualifying conviction in the last 10 years, and prepare the narrative plan and the corporate documents.

4. 04

   File through the licensing system

   11VAC5-70-20 · 11VAC5-70-50

   Designate an account representative, obtain portal credentials, upload the application and wire $50,000 for each principal. Investigations start only when fees are received.

5. 05

   Receive the decision and pay the issuance fee

   s. 58.1-4032 J

   The Director decides within 90 days of receipt. Pay $250,000 before the permit issues, and put in place the bond, the $500,000 reserve and the insurance.

6. 06

   Test the platform and prepare to go live

   11VAC5-70-270 · 11VAC5-70-280

   Submit all equipment and software to an approved laboratory, set up geolocation and the 24-hour software authentication, and clear the events you will offer against the Bet Directive.

7. 07

   Go live and keep filing

   s. 58.1-4037 · 11VAC5-70-250

   Pay the 15% tax by the 20th of each month, file the annual report by 15 January, run the audit and the security assessment, and renew at least 60 days before the three-year term ends.

For platform, odds, geolocation and account-management businesses that manage or control wagers or operate platform software or hardware. The Director of the Virginia Lottery issues the licence after a background investigation.

1. 01

   Designate a representative and obtain credentials

   Lottery resource guides

   Name an account representative, a compliance officer or similar, and email the licensing mailbox for credentials to the online licensing system. A platform supplier identifies, with the Lottery, the individuals who meet the definition of a principal.

2. 02

   Complete the application and pay by wire

   11VAC5-70-70 E, G

   Complete the application online and pay $125,000 for a platform supplier or $50,000 for any other supplier. Only $10,000 or $5,000 is the licence fee; the rest is a refundable investigation deposit.

3. 03

   Answer a deficiency notice and the investigation

   11VAC5-70-20

   A deficiency must be cured within 15 days. The Director may require further deposits, and no decision period is set for supplier applications.

4. 04

   Hold the licence and renew

   11VAC5-70-70 I

   The licence runs three years and renews at $50,000, at least 60 days before expiry. A temporary or conditional licence may be issued for 180 days at the Director's discretion.

For affiliates, marketing agencies, payment providers, cloud and data-centre businesses that are in Virginia and are not suppliers, and for the individuals who work for permit holders, suppliers and vendors.

1. 01

   Confirm the class

   11VAC5-70-80

   A vendor is a person within Virginia engaged by or acting for a permit holder to provide goods or services that directly affect sports betting. The regulation's own example is an affiliated marketer. An unregistered person may not perform vendor functions.

2. 02

   File and pay

   11VAC5-70-80 D · 11VAC5-70-90 C

   A vendor applies through the licensing system with a certificate of good standing and pays $500. A sports betting employee licence also costs $500.

3. 03

   Renew every three years

   11VAC5-70-80 F

   The registration runs three years and renews at $500, at least 60 days before expiry. A vendor that advertises for several permit holders keeps its materials available to the Director.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 7 Nov 2026.