Va. lawmakers join gambling lobbyists on private jet to Illinois to study games
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PATRICK WILSONRichmond Times-Dispatch
RICHMOND — State lawmakers who want to bring new gambling machines to Virginia convenience stores and restaurants took a private jet to Illinois with company lobbyists to see the slot machines up close and spend a night in downtown Chicago.
The trip is not illegal and the lawmakers got permission from a state ethics council that includes some of their colleagues, but it illustrates how gambling interests are stepping up attempts to influence legislation as they compete against each other to convince lawmakers to approve their games, which are like slot machines in a casino. The lawmakers must disclose the gifts.
Sen. John Bell, D-Loudoun, who has filed legislation to bring the machines to Virginia, and Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, who heads a state Senate subcommittee on gaming, went on the trip. Also on board were Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, and Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell.
They flew with lobbyists Dylan Bishop and Steve Baril of the VA VGT Gaming Coalition, which includes business interests that want to bring what are called “video gaming terminals” to Virginia.
Advocates say the games could replace the “games of skill” that arrived illegally in the state several years ago and were recently banned by the legislature. The new games would provide more tax revenue and help owners of convenience stores, restaurants and truck stops, who relied on revenue from the banned games to get a new source of income, advocates say.
Interests behind charitable gaming and casinos, which are now legal in five Virginia cities, oppose the slot machines entering Virginia because they view them as a competitive threat. Bell’s bill this year was killed in a Senate committee, to be studied later this year by McPike’s subcommittee.
Bell, who said he personally likes to gamble, said Illinois has done a great job legalizing the video gaming terminals and now gets $70 million to $80 million in revenue from them every month.
He and the others flew to Effingham, Illinois, on Tuesday and looked at the games in a restaurant, bar and truck stop to see the gaming operations. They toured a terminal operator’s business — a business that places and services the games.
Then they flew to Chicago and met with some Illinois legislators and then on Wednesday met with state gaming regulators before flying back to Virginia.
“We came away with a lot more knowledge than we had going in,” Bell said. “There’s no guarantee we’ll go down this path, but if we want to consider it, we wanted to have as much information as we could.”
McPike said it was good to talk to small business owners, legislators and gaming regulators in Illinois to get perspective and hear their recommendations should Virginia legalize the machines.
He said he hopes to schedule study committee meetings in the next month to hear subcommittee presentations in the fall.
