Gov. Youngkin amends ‘skill games’ bill to add tougher restrictions

Max Marcilla
·2 min read
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ASHBURN, Va. (DC News Now) — Doug Kister, the owner of Finnegan’s Grill and Irish Pub in Ashburn, is a small business owner who is frustrated with Virginia’s governor.

“I really feel for the 7-Elevens, the small grocery stores and the small pubs like mine,” he said.

Fister’s concerns come just a day after Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s last-minute amendment of the skill games bill.

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As passed, the slot-like games would have been allowed to turn on in establishments across the commonwealth, with some numerical restrictions. But Youngkin’s amendment included much tougher restrictions: the machines would not be allowed within roughly a half-mile of a school or church, or within 35 miles of a casino. Additionally, the machines would be taxed at a higher rate.

“We have better products, better food coming out, because we’re able to pay our staff more money,” Kister said, explaining the benefits of previous skill game revenues.

As lawmakers debated in Richmond, some spoke out about the perceived harms of the machines.

“These machines expose children to gambling and they prey on vulnerable communities,” Lorin Johnson said at a press conference in Richmond earlier this year.

More recently, a group of religious leaders across Virginia wrote a letter expressing their opposition to the reversal of the ban.

“It really ends up being a tax on the poor, who can’t afford it,” said Rev. Jeffrey Haugh of Vale United Methodist Church in Fairfax County.

To-go cocktails bill signed into law by Gov. Youngkin

Reacting to the governor’s amendment, Devinder Singh said he’s a Republican who is frustrated.

“[Youngkin’s] bill is anti-small business and in favor of the casinos,” said Singh, who operates some 7-Eleven stores in Fairfax and Prince William counties.

Lawmakers will reconvene next week in Richmond to consider the governor’s amendments.

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