Virginia Poker: Explore Events, Venues, and Gambling Laws

Virginia, the state that has given the US its most presidents, is also the state that was among the last to legalize land based casino gambling. The state legislature finally approved five cities as locations to build casinos in 2019. Those five cities are: Bristol, Danville, Portsmouth and Norfolk. The fifth one, the capital city of Richmond, completed the legal process a year after the others.

With that new piece of legislation passed by the State Assembly, sports betting was also legalized.

There are no casinos in operation in the entire state of Virginia yet. However, there’s a number of ambitious projects proposed in the 5 cities. As of now, it seems the first one to open will be Rivers Casino in Portsmouth. It is set to open in late 2022 or in early 2023. Three successful gambling venues run under the Rivers Casino brand in the US today. Two in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) and one in Illinois (Del Plaines). They’re operated by Rush Street Gaming, which, in turn, is owned by casino mogul Neil Bluhm.

With the passage of the 1988 Indian Gaming Act, a federal law, Virginians could have gotten their own casino on Native American reservations, even before the 2019 state legislation. However, the “Old Dominion State” is one of the few where no Native American casino is located.

Until the new venues open, local gamblers must cross state lines for some action, usually in nearby Maryland or West Virginia. Virginia does have a few horse race tracks, some of them even have slot machines on their premises. They even have a state lottery. However, as for a proper poker room with regular tournament and cash game action, there is none – currently.

Famous Virginian Poker Players

Justin Bonomo was born in Oakton, VA. He led the famous Hendon all time money list between July 2018 and August 2019. He was eventually overtaken by Brynn Kenney.

Bonomo has $55.153 million in live tournament winnings. That is still the second most in the world, and – evidently – the most in Virginia. He has 3 WSOP gold bracelets. In July 2018, he took down the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop high roller at the World Series of Poker for $10 million. That is the biggest single live tournament cash of his career to date.

Second on that list is John Gabe Patgorski from Chesapeake, VA. He has $7.833 million in live tournament cashes. He regularly plays in Triton super high stakes tournaments around the world. In August 2019, he finished first in the £250,000 Short Deck NLHE “Les Ambassadeurs Private Event” at Trition London for £4.815 million. He beat none other than his fellow Virginian Justin Bonomo heads-up for the title.