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RICHMOND, Va. — In a stunning reversal of fortune Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates, the lower chamber of the state legislature, overwhelmingly voted down a bill that would have made it illegal for gambling entities in the state he use the slogan “Virginia is for bettors“ to advertise their services.
Norment, a Republican and a lawyer, became angry when he recently heard a gambling commercial on his car radio that declared “Virginia is for bettors.”
Virginia has legal sports betting and casino gambling.
The state’s tourism bureau has used the advertising slogan “Virginia is for lovers” since 1969, and the betting slogan is a play on words of that.
“Frankly, it annoyed me,” Norment told a State Senate gambling sub-committee. “We’ve spent a lifetime trying to market ‘Virginia is for lovers.’ I just felt it was trespassing on it.”
According to the wording of the bill, it “prohibits sports betting and casino gaming operators and their affiliates from using the name of Virginia or the Commonwealth in an advertisement in association with their products or services (and) a violation is subject to a civil penalty of up to $50,000.”
The state’s governor, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has not publicly stated whether he will sign or veto the bill if it reaches his desk.
But now that the Republican-controlled House of Delegates has nixed the bill that the Democrat-controlled State Senate approved, if the House doesn’t re-vote, the issue will be moot and the bill will have died on the vine.
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Chief Correspondent
Gambling911.com Publisher Chris Costigan contributed to this story
