Republican senator meeting with others to talk about Youngkin’s skill game changes

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A Virginia senator is speaking out against amendments to a skill games bill which would affect Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Richmond and Roanoke.

Republican state Sen. Bill DeSteph held a community discussion Monday afternoon at Scandal’s Bar and Lounge in Virginia Beach.

“I support the governor holistically. Like every legislator and every governor, we have differences of opinion on how policies should be executed at times, and that’s OK,” DeSteph said. “For the small business owners who currently rely on skill games as their business model, this would harm them. What I wanted to do and what I plan on doing is have a community discussion on the skill games bill.”

The General Assembly sent a bill to the governor meant to legalize skill games earlier this year. Just last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he wants to make some changes to the bill.

The big change bans skill games within a 35 mile radius of casinos, race tracks and off-track horse betting locations. This change would effectively ban skill games in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Richmond and Roanoke entirely.

Youngkin’s changes would also ban skill games within 2,500 feet of churches, schools and daycares.

“That shuts down 95% of the Commonwealth. There’s an opportunity to do it right,” DeSteph said Monday.

Youngkin wants to pull the plug on skill games in the metro area

Dozens of business owners packed Scandal’s as they rallied in support of skill games.

“I had three 7-Eleven stores,” said retired Chesapeake police officer Brett Creekmore. “Two of them are up for sale now because I can’t make it anymore.”

Another 7-Eleven store owner revealed to the crowd that he lost $8,000 last month due to the ban.

“COVID killed us,” said Dee Oliver Kelly’s Tavern. “It raised cost of goods, it raised our rent, it raised our minimum wage, we needed to bonus out our people to keep the people that would come to work at the time. These machines helped us keep our lights on, turned our water on, kept all these people employed.”

Another amendment would not allow them to be turned on until the Virginia Lottery sets up a tracking system. A few lawmakers said this could take up to a year-and-a-half.

“It was a virtual veto,” said Boyd Melchor of Kelly’s Tavern. “He may as well have just vetoed it. … It wasn’t an amendment. It was a total re-write and the conditions were so draconian that no one can do it.”

Youngkin also wants to raise the tax rate on skill game profits from 25% to 35%.

“I had talked to a lot of people over the last two or three days to include the governor,” DeSteph told 10 On Your Side. “He and I talked on Saturday. We’ll chat again tonight [Monday]. I think we’ll work something out in the long run on this.”

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