Virginia Senator Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) had lost count on how many times she watched her gambling related bills flew straight in the garbage bin.

But last Monday’s Senate General Laws Committee hearing was different for Lucas after of her bills, which would allow organizations that hold bingo games to also poker games, had finally been transmitted to the full Senate.

The Daily Press reported that Lucas’ Senate Bill 1400 has hurdled the Senate Committee, albeit by a hairline.

Voting 8-7, the Senate Committee approved her poker bill, thanks in-part to Sen. William R. DeSteph Jr., R-Virginia Beach, who surprisingly joined her side.

The other Senator who voted in favor of the bill were Democrat Senators George Barker, Marnie Locke, Adam Ebbin, Jennifer Wexton, Scott Surovell, Jeremy McPike, and Monty Mason. The seven “nays” came from: Jill Vogel, Richard Black, Frank Ruff, Bryce Reeves, David Suetterlein, Siobhan Dunnavant, and Glen Sturtevant, Jr.

“I had the law on my side,” Lucas said afterward, according to the news report.

More at Calvin Ayre