In Virginia, legislators are due to begin contemplating a step early next year that could see the southern state earn extra tax earnings up to $57 million annually by allowing residents to place online and mobile sports wagers.
According to a Sunday report by American business magazine, Forbes, House Bill 1638 was pre-filed past week by Mark Sickles from the Virginia House of Delegates and is currently scheduled to begin its long road to ratification following the beginning of the state’s next legislative session on January 9.
Joining the club
As written, the step will reportedly authorize wagering via ‘a site, app or other programs reachable via the Internet or mobile, wireless or similar communications technologies ’ together with regulatory obligations handled by the Virginia Lottery.
Three-year permits:
Forbes reported that the legislation from 61-year-old Sickles would permit the Virginia Lottery to issue as many as five three-year online sportsbetting licenses comprising an individual cost set at $250,000. Operators would purportedly also have the ability to renew these initial licenses for an extra $200,000 although they’d be prohibited from providing wagers on any professional or collegiate event involving teams from the state of 8.5 million individuals.
Proceeds to benefit schooling:
As written, the Democratic legislator’s measure would moreover require licensed operators to pay a 15% earnings tax with 95% of these funds earmarked to encourage state universities via the projected Major Research Project Sub-Fund. It would purportedly likewise present 2.5percent of this windfall into the Virginia Lottery in the kind of an ‘administration fee’ while still preventing some ‘competition, trainer, coach, owner or employee of a team at a professional sports event or any referee for a professional sports event’ by being able to place a wager.
Getting ahead of the contest:
Forbes reported that Sickles believes the successful passage of House Bill 1638 would enable Virginia to create jobs and diversify its market whilst getting a jump on the neighboring jurisdictions of North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland and Washington, DC, that can be said to be contemplating similar legislation.
Market’s possible:
Finally, Forbes mentioned a recent report by global forecasting and qualitative analysis company Oxford Economics as detailing that the successful passage of Sickles’ legislation could cause annual net aggregated sportsbetting earnings in Virginia reaching around $380 million off of a handle topping approximately $5.2 billion. It explained that such a performance will see the state bring in around $57 million each year via the imposition of this step ’s 15% revenue tax.
NCAA coming to terms with legalized sportsbetting
