HB 662: Offenses relating to gift cards; penalties. - Virginia

Criminal Subcommittee Substitute → Chaptered · 3 edits

MINOR

This bill was finalized and approved as Chapter 196 for the 2026 session, replacing the previous House substitute version. The text was cleaned up to remove draft markers and formatting errors, while the substantive legal definitions and penalties for credit and gift card crimes remained unchanged. A minor technical adjustment was made to the funding section, changing the estimated appropriation from a specific blank amount to 'cannot be determined'.

Scope change

The scope of the law itself did not change; the bill covers the same offenses regarding credit cards and gift cards as the previous version.

TECHNICAL

The bill status changed from a 'House Substitute' draft to a 'Chaptered' Act, indicating it has been approved and signed into law.

Formatting errors and draft markers (like '12-month' appearing after 'twelve-month') were corrected throughout the text.

FISCAL

The estimated appropriation for state adult correctional facilities was changed from a blank amount to 'cannot be determined', requiring the Sentencing Commission to assign a minimum fiscal impact.

Courts of Justice Substitute → Criminal Subcommittee Substitute · 1 edit

MINOR

The bill text has been reformatted from a standard legislative layout to a 'House Substitute' version with added page headers, footers, and session dates, but the actual legal content regarding gift card theft, fraud, and penalties remains unchanged.

TECHNICAL

The document structure was altered to include 'HOUSE SUBSTITUTE' headers, bill numbers, and session dates, while the substantive legal definitions and penalties were preserved without modification.

Enrolled → Courts of Justice Substitute · 1 edit

MINOR

The document provided is a procedural record showing the transition of a bill from its final 'Enrolled' status to a 'Courts of Justice Substitute' draft version. No substantive policy changes, legal definitions, or penalties were altered; the text remains identical except for the addition of standard legislative formatting headers and page numbers required for the substitute version.

TECHNICAL

Added standard legislative headers (e.g., 'OFFERED FOR CONSIDERATION', 'HOUSE BILL NO. 662') and page numbering to convert the bill into a substitute draft format.

Introduced → Enrolled · 4 edits · Mar 4, 2026

MODERATE

The bill evolved from a standalone article creating new crimes specifically for gift card theft and fraud into a comprehensive amendment of the existing credit card offense statutes. The final version expanded the scope to include credit cards and debit cards alongside gift cards, unified the definitions for both card types, and established a single, broader theft statute covering both.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded from solely covering gift cards to explicitly including credit cards, debit cards, and payment device numbers under the same theft and fraud provisions.

SCOPE

The bill was amended to apply to credit cards and debit cards in addition to gift cards, merging them under a single 'Credit card or gift card theft' offense.

DEFINITION

New definitions were added for 'Acquirer', 'Expired credit card', 'Issuer', 'Payment device number', 'Receives', 'Revoked credit card', 'Sales draft', and 'Cash advance/withdrawal draft' to support the expanded scope.

ENFORCEMENT

The specific standalone sections for gift card forgery and criminally receiving fraudulently obtained goods were removed and consolidated into the broader credit card theft and fraud statutes.

REQUIREMENT

The title and legislative purpose were updated to reflect the amendment of existing sections (18.2-191, 18.2-192, etc.) rather than the addition of a new article.

Offenses relating to gift cards; penalties.

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