Third Richmond Casino Vote Unlikely, but Virginia Lawmakers Seek Guarantee

For the s time, capital of Virginia voters rejected a proposed casino through and through a local referendum in November. While it seems unlikely that the Old Dominion capital’s City Council testament learned person a 3rd referendum on a gaming holiday resort send off after voters lowest twelvemonth to a greater extent strongly opposed a gambling casino than they did during the for the first time vote inwards 2021, deuce country lawmakers want to undress urban center officials of the casino privilege.

Virginia lawmakers in 2020 authorized pentad cities, including Richmond, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Bristol, and Danville, to count casinos. The legislating provided specific inside information qualifying for each one city.

The 2020 law of nature didn’t identify the cities past name, but instead, qualified to each one through elaborated legislative language.

The 2020 invoice explains that an eligible legion city includes “any city with a population greater than 200,000, according to the 2018 population estimates from the Weldon Gary Cooper Center for Public Robert William Service of the University of Virginia, inwards which at to the lowest degree 24% of the assessed note value of all existent estate inwards such urban center is free from local prop taxation, according to the Virginia Department of Taxation Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2018, and that had a impoverishment charge per unit of at to the lowest degree 24% inwards 2017, according to data provided past the U.S. Census Bureau.” That specific language qualified Richmond for a casino.

Bills to End Richmond Casino Referendums

State Del. Betsy Carr (D-Richmond) introduced legislation this hebdomad that would slip the aforementioned linguistic communication from the Old Dominion statute that legalized commercial casinos inward the commonwealth. Del. Michael Jones (D-Richmond) has meanwhile introduced statute law that would prohibit a qualifying gambling casino boniface city from conducting multiple referendums.

All but capital of Virginia held bingle referendums approbatory their casinos. While Carr and Jones are electioneering to forestall Richmond from re-asking voters to approve a casino for a 3rd time, lawmakers representing other parts of the land feature filed lawmaking to gather casino referendum privileges.

Since the time of the foremost failed Richmond gambling casino vote, Petersburg Campaign has verbalized stake in comme il faut a gambling casino host location. Petersburg is around 25 miles southward of the land capital.

State Sen. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) is spearheading the Petersburg Campaign casino bear on inwards 2024. Nicknamed the “Casino Lady” for her years of advocating for the commonwealth to reserve Las Vegas-style gambling, George Lucas is a powerful lawmaker who has served inward the Richmond chapiter since 1992. She’s been the Senate President Pro Tempore since Jan 2020.

State Sen. Jacques Louis David Marsden (D-Fairfax) has authored lawmaking to appropriate Fairfax County’s Tysons to go a commercial message casino host. He believes a casino inward Northern Old Dominion would drive home the state with considerable taxation revenue and keep the estimated $100 gazillion that Northern Virginians lose at casinos inwards neighboring MD indoors the commonwealth.

Richmond Casino Conclusion?

Richmonders narrowly discomfited their proposed casino inwards 2021 past a 51%-49% outcome. That throw was called ONE Casino + Resort.

Undeterred, the capital of Virginia City Council and Mayor Levar Stoney (D) moved forwards with a arcsecond referendum with the go for that a to a greater extent unified public drive hyping the benefits that such a holiday resort would convey the working capital tube would resultant inward a different outcome.

Richmond’s government activity once more partnered with Urban One, a media empire tailored to the Shirley Temple Black community. The Richmond Grand Resort & Casino, as that propose was called after being visualized inward a partnership with John Churchill Downs, ran a campaign called “Richmond Wins, Vote Yes.”

In the days before the vote, Urban One execs and on-air personalities caused contention with some of their remarks. Urban One founder Cathy Howard Robard Hughes injected race into the conversation past claiming opponents to the gambling casino are opponents to the Negroid community.

Do non bury that they make non ensure you as a human being,” Ted Hughes said on a wireless exhibit produced by Urban One. “Even though you may hold a put up ilk theirs, a railroad car the likes of theirs, and your children go away to the same schools, they control you as a n*****.”

Radio legion Preston Robert Brown later called 1 of the casino’s biggest opponents, political activistic St. Paul Goodman, “a whiteness Israelite with a ground of Judas.”

The 2023 capital of Virginia cassino was disappointed past a 58%-42% vote.

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