In Virginia and the long-running campaign to get casinos legalized reportedly took a massive step forward on Sunday after state legislators passed a measure that could see gambling-friendly venues authorized for five disparate cities.

According to a Sunday report from local television broadcaster WSET-TV, the Virginia House of Delegates passed the casino proposal yesterday by a vote of 60 to 35 only 24 hours after the compatriot Virginia State Senate approved the same measure by a similarly-comfortable 27-to-twelve margin.

Gubernatorial endorsement:

The newspaper reported that this legislation was introduced by Virginia State Senator Lillie Louise Lucas in November and now requires the signature of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to become law. This eventuality would purportedly allow the cities of Danville, Richmond, Bristol, Portsmouth and Norfolk to hold local referendums from as early as November in order to ask residents whether they would like their communities to play host to a casino.

Sportsbook sanction:

In associated news and Richmond-based broadcaster WWBT-TV used a Sunday report to detail that the same legislative session saw local lawmakers pass a second measure that would legalize sports wagering within the five proposed casinos. This legislation would moreover purportedly see the state of some 8.5 million people legalize online and mobile sportsbetting under the direction of the Virginia Lottery with between four and twelve licenses due to be put up for grabs.

Recreational restrictions:

The online news domain at LegalSportsReport.com reported that this latter measure, which similarly requires the consent of the southern state’s Democratic Governor before becoming law, would not allow punters to wager on any collegiate sporting event featuring a team from Virginia. It detailed that the legislation would furthermore ban proposition bets on all college sports and require licensed operators to utilize official league data in order to settle in-play wagers.

License levy:

It was additionally reported that the Virginia sportsbetting measure would give license preference to any professional sports teams that were willing to relocate to ‘The Old Dominion State’ and require operators to pay $250,000 for a three-year license. It also detailed that these firms would subsequently be asked to hand over 15% of any local sports wagering revenues in tax and part with $200,000 every time they wanted to renew.