This year, the General Assembly has an opportunity to enact comprehensive legislation — House Bill 161 and Senate Bill 118 — that protects Virginians from predatory platforms, creates jobs and collects new tax revenue from licensed igaming operators.

Many sites do not have strong identity verification and are able to advertise on social media with little oversight. Tech-savvy young people in the United States can gamble on them using false identities and readily available software to mask their locations, often unbeknownst to their parents.

By last year, [Pennsylvania] was collecting $1.05 billion in taxes from digital casinos, compared with $188 million from sportsbook apps. The revenue from casino games is significant: Pennsylvania’s entire state budget is about $50 billion.

Virginia has vastly expanded gambling over the past few years, and another new form, iGaming, was debated at a committee hearing in Richmond Tuesday morning.

Virginia’s shift to online gambling has been dramatic — and has led to significantly more money flowing to state coffers. But offshore betting websites — unregulated, illegal and untaxed — are on the rise and competing for gamblers’ dollars.