So-called “skill games,” or computerized gambling machines, have popped up across Virginia since their temporary legalization in 2020. Efforts to restrict them have followed in the years since.
However, one Virginia Senator successfully convinced a Hanover County judge that newer games skirt that law from the General Assembly.
Hanover convenience store owner David Bogese was charged with possession of an “illegal gambling device” last year. But Wednesday, at a hearing in the county’s general district court, Judge Hugh Campbell sided with Bogese.
“The law requires that, in order to be an illegal skill game, it requires that the terminal have an area where you insert a coin, token or other similar object in order to activate and the player to play the game," Bogese' defense attorney and Southside state senator Bill Stanley told Radio IQ Thursday. "Those games don’t have that kind of insertion. They’re not insertion games.”
The new machines involve approaching an attendant and presenting cash to initiate gameplay. The attendant then uses a code to load the machine with credits.
Skill games that do require insertion are still illegal, and Hanover’s Commonwealth's Attorney Mackenzie Babichenko said her office continues to prosecute cases related to their operation.
"Our office will continue to prosecute the operation of gaming machines which meet the elements of the current statute, as such games remain a public safety concern in our more populated areas," Babichenko told Radio IQ in a statement
The ruling was praised by skill game advocates, including Rich Kelly with the Virginia Merchants and Amusement Coalition. In a statement, Kelly said many small businesses rely on skill games for “additional income to pay wages, make improvements, and in some cases, keep the lights on.”
As for the future of skill game regulation, Stanley said he’s not for gambling broadly, but if they remain unregulated and untaxed...
“We’re losing out on valuable tax revenue and we’re putting Virginia small business owners in peril," Stanley said. "And that’s not right and that’s why I fight.”
Among state legislators who were less thrilled by the ruling is Senator Bryce Reeves, who is part of the Senate Gaming Commission. He helped author a plan to regulate skill games this legislative session, but it didn't pass. In a statement sent Thursday, Reeves said Stanely’s win only reinforces the need for oversight and Virginia.
"We must put forward ample resources to address problem gaming issues and ensure that strict compliance and stiff penalties exist in the code to address bad actors,” Reeves said.
Stanley's win also comes after Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares issued a memo last fall which found that the type of skill games targeted in the dispute run afoul of the law.
"The fact that the new QVS2 device has a different payment system does not change the fact that players are presenting money for the sole purpose of digitally inserting the money, or a representative token thereof, into the QVS2 machine,” the Miyares memo reads.
Stanley said his win Wednesday shows Miyares was wrong.
"That memo was misplaced, misguided and misinformed a lot of our Commonwealth's Attorneys," Stanley said, suggesting Miyares tried to stretch the meaning of the law beyond its plain language.
"It's just not how we do criminal defense work or prosecute laws in Virginia," he said.
Requests for comment sent to Miyares' office were not returned.
Virginia’s legislature will likely take another crack at skill game regulation during the 2026 session.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
