According to a monthly Virginia Lottery report, adjusted gross sports betting revenue across online and retail wagering reached a record $95.3 million for the month of November. That’s a 10.3% increase on the previous high of $86.4 million, which was reached a year earlier in November 2024. It also represents a 26.6% increase from October 2025.
The gross sports betting handle of $798.9 million fell just short of the record $831.6 million in October 2025, with $793.6 million of spending coming online and the remaining $5.3 million at retail wagering facilities.
November was a busy month in sports, with Thanksgiving National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL) all in full flow. However, the increase in betting activity reflects a trend seen throughout the year. In August 2025, the state posted particularly strong numbers as the sports season began to ramp up, reporting a year-on-year and month-on-month increase in sports betting revenue.
At the time of writing, there are 14 sportsbooks and three casinos with licenses in Virginia. The most recent analysis, conducted in 2024, suggests FanDuel to be the dominant sportsbook in the state, with 39.1% of the market share. However, DraftKings (28.4%), BetMGM (10.7%), and Bet365 (5.5%) are likely to have closed the gap since then.
Tax boost for Virginia state
The record-setting figures are providing Virginia with a financial fillip going into the new tax year. A total of $14.3 million were made in tax payments, with $13.9 million going to the General Fund allocation and the remaining amount supporting Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund Allocation.
Virginia’s General Fund is the state government’s primary pool of discretionary revenue, used to pay for core public services such as K-12 education, higher education, Medicaid, public safety, and state employee salaries. It is designed to reflect the government’s policy ideas while maintaining fiscal responsibilities and creating buffers to safeguard against economic downturns.
Online gambling was legalised in April 2020, but the state didn’t open its doors to operators until January 2021. Since then, the state has raised in excess of $1.5 billion in state taxes, according to industry analysts Research Ground. Operators are taxed at 15% of gross gaming revenue, which is on the lower end of the scale when compared to other states. The states of New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island, for example, have an effective tax rate of 51% on all sports betting revenue.
However, the advent of sports betting has presented some issues for the market. According to Carolyn Hawley, president of the Virginia Council on Problem Gambling, the number of calls they are having to field is dramatically increasing. She said: “Since 2019 to 2024, we’ve had about a 1,500% increase in total calls. We’ve [also] had an over 200% increase in people specifically asking for treatment support for a gambling problem.”
As regulated sports betting revenues surge to record levels, state lawmakers are also turning their attention to adjacent wagering products that operate outside Virginia’s existing regulatory framework.
Spread of prediction markets causing alarm
While sports betting becomes increasingly popular through heavily regulated platforms, lawmakers are having to contend with a new form of wagering that exists outside the purview of the state government. Prediction market platforms, like Kalshi and Polymarket, are regulated at the federal level by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which treats them as derivatives markets.
Their legal status remains contested in many states where gambling regulators and industry analysts argue they function like sports betting and therefore conflict with state wagering laws. Last month, Virginia State Delegate and chair of the House Gaming Subcommittee Paul Krizek wrote an opinion column in the Richmond-Times Dispatch calling for more state intervention in setting the rules for the next generation of gaming.
He said: “Over the last decade, Virginia has built one of the most responsible, transparent and effective gaming systems in the country. A new wave of online “prediction market platforms” is testing the boundaries of those rules and threatening to erode the progress we’ve made.”
He argues: “Legal sportsbooks and casinos in the commonwealth operate under strict licensing, auditing and responsible gaming requirements. They invest in our communities and return a fair share to taxpayers. The system works because it’s accountable to Virginians, not to federal agencies unequipped to regulate gambling.”
He is recommending the General Assembly to change the definition of prediction markets and event contracts and assign primary oversight to the proposed Virginia Gaming Commission, which is a new “stand-alone regulator with expertise in digital platforms, anti-fraud enforcement and cross-border compliance.”
Whether lawmakers act now or wait for courts and federal regulators to intervene, Virginia’s debate underscores a broader national reckoning. How will states regulate fast-moving prediction markets without undermining existing gaming laws, consumer protections, or state authority over gambling oversight boundaries?
