The Virginia Lottery has released its latest sports wagering activity report, with this March seeing a 8.5% increase in wagers since the same time last year.
The independent agency, which was created in 1987, states the report includes sports wagering activity submitted by licensed operators for the month of March 2025.
“Between March 1 and March 31, 2025, Virginians wagered $689,665,044 (“handle”), 8.5% higher than last March,” the report notes.
The gross sports gaming revenues for March 2025 was $689,665,044, with mobile operators contributing to a large slice of that amount at $683,133,146. Casino retail activity amounted to $6,531,898.
The gross winnings came to a total of $638,986,760 for the month, $633,199,075 under the mobile operators tab and $5,787,686 under casino retail activity.
Amongst the already approved list of operators, March saw fourteen further mobile operators and three casinos be authorized to accept wagers within the state.
In Virginia, there is a 15% tax of sports betting activity which is based on each permit holder’s adjusted gross revenue (AGR) which is defined as total wagers minus total winnings and the other authorized deductions.
Of the state tax on the sports betting AGR, a total of 97.5 percent gets deposited in the state’s General Fund and 2.5 percent goes towards the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund which is administered by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
The total tax came to $6,754,928.21 which meant $6,586,055.00 towards the state’s general fund allocation and $168,873.21 to the problem gambling treatment and support fund.
Sports betting in the state is still fairly new as it was only in July of 2020 when sports betting became legal in Virginia. The first wagers were accepted the following year in January of 2021.
In 2021, voters in Norfolk, Danville, Portsmouth and Bristol passed a referendum to bring casinos to those localities. In July 2022, Bristol casino was open for play, with other casinos having opened in 2023-24.
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