Richmond Casino License Could Be Mothballed by Virginia Budget

Richmond officials be after to re-ask local voters in November to living a gambling casino resort hotel within the city’s limits. But country lawmakers crafting Virginia’s next budget could greatly holdup the gaming externalise from receiving an operating license.

Richmond voters during the November 2021 election narrowly rejected a proposed $565 gazillion cassino development from a partnership led by media conglomerate Urban One and cassino manipulator Peninsula Pacific Ocean Entertainment. City leaders, including Mayor Levar Stoney (D), trust voters got it incorrect and that a gambling casino terminus would aid revitalize the Virginia working capital region.

Stoney and the capital of Virginia City Council need to re-ask city residents around the casino. But fifty-fifty if a simple bulk backs the gaming referendum during this November’s midterms, the latest tipple of Virginia’s 2022-2024 biennium budget includes a supply that would temporarily debar the nation from issuing Richmond a cassino license.

Members in the Senate Finance and Appropriations and House Appropriations committees in conclusion week included language into the budget that would require the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to firstly turn over the economical benefits of allowing Petersburg Campaign to live offered cassino privileges.

License Lockdown

Virginia’s 2020 gaming bank bill provided economically struggling cities with the chance to ask their constituents if they livelihood using a cassino holiday resort to gad the regional economy. Five cities met the qualifying criteria, but only when capital of Virginia voters rejected the opportunity. Casinos are beingness reinforced in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Bristol, and Danville.

State Sen. Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond), who lost to Stoney inwards the 2016 capital of Virginia mayoral rush before seeking his Senate seat, has been championing the exertion to relocate Richmond’s untapped cassino certify to nearby Petersburg. He argues a back gambling casino vote inwards capital of Virginia goes against the democratic process.

After Morrissey’s vizor that would hold qualified Petersburg Campaign as a casino candidate failed inward commission inward February, the senator persuaded his fellow legislative colleagues to include a provision in the budget bill that would keep capital of Virginia from hosting a endorsement casino referendum until at to the lowest degree 2023. However, Richmond Circuit Court Judge Reilly Marchant ruled inwards March that Richmond put up again inquire metropolis voters nigh a casino, essentially paramount the budget proposed provision. As a result, Morrissey took another route that resulted inward the in vogue(p) budget provision that would suspend the country from issuing Richmond a gambling casino license until the JLARC Petersburg casino hit the books is completed.

They [Richmond] can buoy have got a referendum if they want to, but we simply won’t concur to issuing the license,” said House Appropriations Chair Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach).

The Old Dominion Lottery is tasked with regulatory responsibilities, including licensing, for the state’s expansion of cassino gambling. The body politic issued its first gambling casino allow inward Apr to Hard John Rock Bristol.

Politics at Play

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Morrissey’s Senate territory is considered a get around seat. And with the Democrats maintaining a contract two-seat advantage o'er Republicans inwards the 40-seat Senate, the company testament piece of work firmly to keep Morrissey in office.

While Morrissey’s 16th District includes parts of Richmond, the absolute majority of the district’s votes follow south of the great inwards Petersburg and the surrounding towns. Petersburg Campaign Mayor Samuel Parham believes his residents are supportive of a casino, as it would land unexampled jobs, tax revenue, and economical activity to the region.

“It canful transform the City of Petersburg,” Parham said shoemaker's last December.

Relocating Richmond’s casino permit to Petersburg Campaign could also facilitate Morrissey’s reelection odds next year. Backers of the failed Richmond cassino outcome blamed snowy voters inwards the city’s to a greater extent wealthy areas.

“This certainly puts Petersburg Campaign on an indoors rail for getting a casino license,” Morrissey said.