In an embodiment, a method for providing automatic router assignment in a virtual environment involves receiving a gratuitous ARP packet and setting a default gateway MAC address to a sender hardware address of the received gratuitous ARP packet, wherein the sender hardware address of the received gratuitous ARP packet is a MAC address of a master virtual router elected from a plurality of virtual routers, wherein a virtual router in the plurality of virtual routers is configured to elect a master virtual router by receiving at least one priority value advertised by another virtual router in the plurality of virtual routers, comparing the at least one received priority value to a priority value local to the virtual router to determine which priority value is the highest, and electing the virtual router having the highest priority value as the master virtual router.