Virginia Home Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) is the most recent lawmaker in Richmond to lend his help towards permitting Petersburg to think about a industrial on line casino endeavor.
Don Scott is sworn in as the primary Black Speaker of the Virginia Home on Jan. 10, 2024. Scott thinks a industrial on line casino resort in Petersburg is a worthy legislative endeavor this 12 months. (Picture: AP)
Scott mentioned his capital colleagues ought to contemplate a brand new host location for the fifth on line casino license voters licensed throughout a statewide poll referendum in 2020. The license was meant for Richmond, however residents there twice voted towards a proposed on line casino resort growth. His feedback got here days after taking the speakership after Democrats regained management of the decrease legislative chamber in the course of the November 2023 election,
State Sen. Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) initiated calls to relocate the Richmond gaming license about 25 miles south to Petersburg after the primary resort referendum was denied by Richmonders in 2021. Lawmakers didn’t get on board and Richmond was in the end allowed to conduct a second gaming referendum, although it met the same destiny.
Morrissey had loads of opponents in Richmond, and never the shiniest of private reputations. In 2013, Morrissey confronted a slew of criticism for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old when he was in his 50s. The 2 married in 2016 when he was 59 and she or he was 20.
New Management
Talking with The Petersburg Progress-Index, Scott says new management in Richmond improves the chances of Petersburg being designated as a qualifying on line casino host.
“Final 12 months, it had the mistaken folks main it. I believe, proper now, the best persons are based mostly in the neighborhood who actually care and don’t carry politics in,” Scott defined.
It’s an financial growth alternative. It’s a job-growth alternative,” the Home chief continued. “I believe that they had an individual coming in, folks coming in wanting it to do extra with politics.”
Morrissey was ousted from workplace by the use of the 2023 Democratic main. He misplaced by a 40% margin to Lashrecse Aird.
Scott isn’t the one highly effective lawmaker supportive of a Petersburg on line casino push. Senate President Professional Tempore Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) has filed laws to designate Petersburg as a on line casino host. Aird is a cosponsor of the invoice.
“If the folks of Petersburg desire a on line casino, they need to give you the chance [to have a casino],” Scott mentioned. “But it surely has to come back from the individuals who signify them and it has to have the best management to get it finished.”
The Cordish Corporations, a Baltimore-based gaming and hospitality large that runs casinos in Maryland and Pennsylvania, has expressed curiosity in creating a resort in Petersburg.
In late 2022, the corporate unveiled a plan for a $1.4 billion growth to be constructed out over a number of development phases and a number of other years. Upon completion, the vacation spot — if constructed as proposed — would entail greater than 670,000 sq. ft of gaming, lodge, eating, and leisure house.
Richmond Redo
Laws has additionally been launched in Richmond that seeks to forestall town’s native authorities from holding one other on line casino referendum.
State Del. Betsy Carr (D-Richmond) has filed a invoice that will take away Richmond from the 2020 gaming statute that certified town for a on line casino. Del. Michael Jones (D-Richmond) has authored a separate invoice that will prohibit on line casino hosts from conducting multiple native referendum to get their resort authorised.
