Sports wagering a growing business in Virginia

BRISTOL, Va. — Betting on sports has been taking place for as long as sports have existed. It just hasn't always been legal.That is part of what has made the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Bristol, Va., such a popular destination since it opened three years ago."I think the bookie piece of it was born out of necessity, it was illegal at the time," said Al Thompson, the vice-president of Casino Operations. "Now that it is so prevalent, it can make people come in and bet on sports like they used to and now they do it in a safe environment, a legal amount and there are parameters set around them to protect them from any negative consequences."Formerly only permitted in Las Vegas and New Jersey, sports wagering became legal in Virginia when Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation into law in 2020. Since then the Virginia Lottery, which oversees casino and online betting operations, has reported that the Adjusted Gross Revenue from sports gaming, including slot machines, table games, poker and sports wagering has grown from $3,235.612 in January of 2021 to a staggering $565,620,035 in April of 2025.Fourteen mobile operators and three Virginia casinos in Bristol, Danville and Portsmouth were authorized to accept wagers in Virginia in April. Thompson said the money raised from the Bristol Sportsbook's 10 kiosks and two ticket windows — which is a small amount compared to the other gaming options — is what is reported to the Virginia Lottery on a monthly basis. Bristol Casino also offers a Hard Rock BET app, but that money isn't included in casino revenue. The majority of sports wagering in Virginia is done online."We don't want to give out those numbers, but we have a certain threshold we want to hit every single month and it is based on prior performance and based on seasonality," Thompson said. "Obviously that number will go up during football season, it is down a little bit right now during the slow season. We are doing well, performing well versus the numbers. Versus prior years is really what we look at and it really depends on the games and how local teams are doing that can really sway us up."You come in here when (Tennessee) is playing college football and they are having a good year, this place is bumping. Like last year they did really good, and baseball too. If they are not doing so well, then we don't see that. Locality certainly plays a role, but we have certain monetary thresholds we want to hit and we have been doing pretty well at that."The Virginia Lottery released its April sports gaming wagering activity in Virginia in late-May, which showed that Virginians wagered more than $609 million from April 1-30, an 8.2 percent increase from 2024. Virginia bettors won nearly $547 million from those transactions. In all, sports gaming in Virginia paid out $8,517,816.52 in taxes in the state's General Fund, with an estimated $31.4 million from the Bristol Casino having gone to 12 Southwest Virginia counties, in addition to Bristol, Va., and Norton, since it opened. A smaller percentage also goes to a support fund for problem gambling."There is a certain percentage on gross revenue set in the legislation. The locality benefits from that and the state certainly benefits from that and the number is pretty astronomical. It is really cool to see how much an impact we are making on the local community for sure," Thompson said. "Not just from a tax revenue standpoint, but think of all the people that we have hired, from a construction standpoint, full-time jobs to part-time jobs, it is really doing great things for this locality."According to Charlie Smith, the Sportsbook manager with the Bristol Casino, 70% of sports wagering is done at kiosks, with the rest written at ticket windows."The Sportsbook experience is probably what you think of it. If you are coming to get rich you are probably going to leave sad, but if you come to bet on your team and sit here and enjoy it and that is just a little added benefit if your team wins and you say, 'hey, I picked up $25 because my team won', people really like that part," Smith said. "You are going to get guys that want to come out here and make a living out of it and they will sit here and they will study stuff and they will try to figure out how to hit these big parlays."We have got a guy who has probably hit three 10-leg parlays on us. He is here every day. He loves it, he says I don't expect to get rich, but it is nice because if I win I tip your guys, they win and your people treat me really good and I feel like you are part of my family when come I here because you are always talking to me."The Bristol Casino offers different kinds of sports betting, including straight bets, parlays, future and teasers, in addition to prop bets. Bettors must be residents of Virginia and 21 years old. Bets can range from $5-$50K, and no negative outcomes are allowed, such as how many interceptions a quarterback might throw. Virginia also won't allow bettors to vote on Virginia college teams such as Virginia Tech and Virginia.The odds on the kiosks and the app are the same, with those odds gathered from Hard Rock Digital, which works to remain competitive with online options like Draft Kings and Fan Duel. Just don't expect Smith or his ticket writers to provide any inside information."People think we are experts so they always ask who are you betting tonight, what do you think is great," Smith said. "If we knew that we probably wouldn't be working, we would be sitting at home with all our money. People think we know something and we have power over stuff, but we don't. People think that people don't win and I have seen on our Facebook page, a lot of people win. It is luck of the draw sometimes, but there is a lot of big winnings."Thompson has heard similar misperceptions of sports betting that are no longer true."We don't pump oxygen in (to keep bettors awake), that is the one of the biggest things, we don't do that," Thompson said. "It is not ran by the mob anymore, that was way back in the day. We don't fix the machines and we don't fix the tables, it is all regulated by the Virginia Lottery. There are certain rules that we have to play by and we play by those. We are actually mandated by the state to pay back a certain amount, certainly on the slot side, so we have to meet that criteria. I am telling you people win here a lot."