Virginia state Sen. David Marsden (D-Burke) is behind a legislative push to qualify Fairfax County as a permissible business on line casino host jurisdiction. He believes permitting a resort on line casino within the northern a part of the state would offer much-needed financial diversification for the area.
Virginia Sen. David Marsden (D) says the financial advantages a on line casino would ship to Northern Virginia could be immense. Marsden plans to introduce laws to permit Fairfax County voters to think about a on line casino. (Picture: AP)
Marsden and Del. Wren Williams (R-Stuart) are supportive of laws to permit Fairfax residents to vote on a on line casino proposal. Their legislative efforts are along side the Comstock Corporations, a business actual property developer that has expressed curiosity in constructing a on line casino alongside the Metro’s Silver Line.
Our trade for my total life has been our proximity to the District of Columbia,” Marsden instructed the Fairfax County Occasions this week.
The longtime state lawmaker — who was elected to the Home of Delegates in 2005 and the state Senate in 2009 — says a on line casino may rejuvenate the area. That’s after the pandemic significantly damage business actual property.
“We now have lots of empty buildings. Workplace buildings are happening in worth,” Marsden said. “The pandemic killed ridership on the Metro. We now have a $700 million Metro funding shortfall.”
Maryland Schooling Subsidy
Marsden says it’s time for Virginia to provide its northern residents a playing possibility and an answer to cease the outflow of cash to casinos in neighboring Maryland.
MGM Resorts opened a $1.4 billion built-in resort on line casino in Oxon Hill, simply outdoors DC throughout the Potomac River, in December 2016. Reside! On line casino Maryland can also be simply 20 miles north of DC alongside the 295 Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Maryland primarily makes use of its gaming taxes to fund Okay-12 public schooling.
We’re paying for Maryland faculties, not ours,” Marsden declared. “We’re shedding $150 million a 12 months to MGM.”
MGM Nationwide Harbor is the top-grossing business on line casino outdoors of Las Vegas. The on line casino gained about $884.5 million from gamblers in 2022.
Virginia’s on line casino legislation, handed in 2020, qualifies solely 5 cities for casinos. Voters in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville, and Bristol subsequently authorised casinos. Richmond was the lone designated on line casino city to reject a gaming proposal, which it did twice.
Extra Than Gaming
Marsden says a on line casino in Fairfax could be extra than simply slot machines, desk video games, and sports activities betting. The vacation spot would possible embody a conference heart, one thing the realm doesn’t presently have.
There are many opponents to Marsden’s legislative plan. Together with a number of native governments passing ordinances formally opposing a on line casino, a grassroots coalition referred to as “Residents Against Reston On line casino” was lately shaped.
“We, the involved residents of Reston, Virginia, strongly oppose any efforts to carry a on line casino to our beloved group. We consider that introducing a on line casino would have detrimental results on our group’s social cloth, security, financial stability, and total high quality of life,” the group’s mission assertion reads.
The group’s petition on Change.org has gathered greater than 4,600 signatures.
The on line casino push will probably be properly funded by Comstock. The corporate has shaped a political motion committee referred to as “Constructing a Outstanding Virginia,” and has given it greater than 1 / 4 of one million {dollars}.
Marsden plans to reintroduce his Fairfax on line casino invoice throughout the 2024 Common Meeting session. The session begins on the second Wednesday in January, which in 2024, is subsequent Wednesday, January 10. Because it’s an even-numbered 12 months, the session runs for 60 days (as in comparison with solely 30 in odd-numbered years).
