Three Virginia teams earned spots to the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. In-state bettors can't legally wager on any of them.
Virginia’s ban on all bets involving Commonwealth teams remains through this year’s March Madness Tournament. This precludes all pointspreads, totals, moneylines, and futures bets.
Individual player props, which the NCAA has worked to ban federally, are also prohibited for in-state games.
This means bettors physically located in Virginia can’t legally bet on any NCAA game involving Norfolk State, Liberty or VCU. If power conference programs including Virginia and Virginia Tech return to the tournament, those contests are also off the board.
Virginia in-state college betting ban context
The ban goes back to Virginia’s 2020 approval of mobile sports betting. Though bettors can wager on dozens of professional leagues worldwide, they're unable to gamble legally on any regular or postseason game involving an in-state college program.
The ban followed similar prohibitions in other East Coast states with legal wagering including New Jersey, the third U.S. state to legalize sports bets. Proponents argued it was a way to protect Virginia student-athletes, who typically start their careers as teenagers and ostensibly compete as amateurs, from abusive fans or corrupt influences.
Several states allow legal statewide mobile betting but prohibit all wagers involving in-state college teams. If you're in these states, you can't bet on the following teams:
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) March 17, 2025
Virginia: Norfolk St, Liberty, VCU
Illinois: Illinois, SIU-Edwardsville
New York: Saint John's
Ban opponents note legalizing sports betting but prohibiting bets on Virginia’s college teams takes away the benefits of player and consumer protections a regulated market offers. Would-be legal bettors are also confused and frustrated when they can’t find betting lines on in-state teams, turning them back to offshore betting sites or unregulated bookmakers.
Virginia NCAA Tournament betting options
Betting bans apply to an individual’s physical location, not state of residency, meaning Virginia bettors looking to wager on the trio of in-state longshots in this year’s tourney have several options in neighboring jurisdictions.
Several hundred Northern Virginia residents cross into Maryland or Washington, D.C. each workday, making either spot a convenient location for bettors. Most of the Maryland and D.C. sportsbooks allow seamless betting across legal wagering jurisdictions, meaning bettors won’t have to log in or out of accounts to bet if they leave Virginia.
North Carolina is not as convenient for Southern Virginia bettors, but does give an option for those in the heavily-populated Hampton Roads area. Like Maryland and D.C., North Carolina currently has no restrictions on college betting (though Tar Heel State lawmakers have considered them).
The remaining states bordering Virginia – West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee – all allow a full range of NCAA tournament bets for totals, spreads and moneylines, yet there are restrictions on individual player props.
