The Petersburg on line casino invoice has handed the Virginia Home of Delegates. The proposal would qualify town to contemplate a on line casino resort and forestall Richmond from conducting one other gaming referendum till Petersburg administers its personal gaming initiative.
An artist’s rendering of The Cordish Corporations’ plan to construct a $1.4 billion on line casino resort simply west of I-95 at Wagner Street in Petersburg, Va. The Petersburg on line casino invoice gained traction within the Virginia Home of Delegates, however faces an uphill battle within the state Senate. (Picture: Metropolis of Petersburg)
Launched by Del. Kimberly Taylor (R-Dinwiddie), Home Invoice 1373 would permit Petersburg to ask native voters in the event that they want to authorize a on line casino as a way to present the area with an financial spark. Virginia lawmakers in 2020 certified 5 cities to contemplate casinos — Richmond, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville, and Bristol.
The 2020 legislation required that every qualifying metropolis maintain a aggressive bidding course of to area the very best on line casino pitch attainable. After deciding on a most popular developer, every undertaking should achieve last approval from native voters within the host locale. Voters in all however Richmond signed off on their native on line casino.
Taylor and state Sen. Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) need to transfer Richmond’s rejected on line casino alternative about 20 miles south. That’s the place Petersburg officers hope to present their residents an opportunity to weigh in on a on line casino. Whereas Morrissey’s Petersburg on line casino invoice died in a Senate committee final week, Taylor’s companion laws discovered satisfactory assist within the decrease chamber.
HB 1373 handed the Home Tuesday by a vote of 49-44. The vote got here on the ultimate day of the 2023 session to approve laws to ship to the opposite chamber. With the Home’s blessing, Taylor’s statute strikes to the Senate for additional consideration.
Senate Unlikely to Cross On line casino Measure
Richmond authorities officers are hoping to reask voters a couple of on line casino this fall.
City One and Churchill Downs stay all in favour of establishing a $565 million on line casino known as One On line casino + Resort close to the Philip Morris tobacco plant alongside I-95, south of the capital metropolis. Town’s 2021 on line casino referendum was narrowly defeated by 51-49%.
Morrissey believes the need of the individuals in Richmond must be revered and the state’s fifth and last on line casino alternative be redirected elsewhere. He efficiently satisfied his state lawmaking colleagues final yr to incorporate a finances provision that blocked Richmond from holding one other gaming referendum till no less than November 2023.
In response to Morrissey’s efforts to relocate Richmond’s gaming privilege to Petersburg, state lawmakers final yr commissioned Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit & Overview Fee to review the feasibility of getting casinos in each Richmond and Petersburg.
The JLARC probe concluded that casinos could possibly be worthwhile in each cities, although every would generate considerably extra income with out the opposite. The JLARC evaluation concluded that lawmakers ought to develop a legislative plan that economically advantages each cities.
That’s why enthusiasm for Taylor’s invoice within the Senate isn’t anticipated to be robust. It’s additionally seemingly why the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee rejected Morrissey’s invoice.
“We have to discover a solution to serve each cities, as JLARC says must be completed,” admitted Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax).
Although Sickles voted in favor of HB 1373, he informed The Progress-Index that the laws’s passing the Senate “is very questionable.”
Opponents Scold Cordish
Taylor informed the Home this week that voting in favor of her invoice isn’t a vote in favor of a on line casino in Petersburg. She as an alternative argued that backing her laws is a vote “to assist democracy and permit the great individuals of Petersburg to have their voices heard and to have a option to embrace the financial alternative of a technology.”
Opponents have questioned Petersburg’s lack of transparency in choosing Baltimore-based Cordish Corporations as their most popular on line casino developer. Some state lawmakers, together with Del. Paul Krizek (D-Fairfax), have additionally scolded Cordish. They declare they’re paying its Reside! On line casino & Resort Maryland employees in Hanover pay significantly lower than what MGM Resorts pays at its MGM Nationwide Harbor on line casino outdoors the nation’s capital in Oxon Hill.
“There’s loads of causes to vote towards this invoice,” Krizek (D-Fairfax) mentioned forward of the vote. “Why don’t we take issues slower? If this can be a nice thought this yr, will probably be an important thought subsequent yr.”
Taylor countered Krizek by citing Cordish’s Petersburg on line casino plan that means salaries and compensation packages for many employees can be round $60K yearly. The common employee in Petersburg presently makes just a bit greater than $26K a yr.
