Virginia’s House and Senate signed off on legislation Saturday and Sunday that will allow five cities to hold public referendums as early as November on whether to build casinos — putting a threat to MGM National Harbor’s revenue on the horizon.
The “economically challenged” cities of Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Richmond, as the legislation refers to them, are all in different preliminary stages of setting up casinos. Most have tentatively hired gaming firms to develop and run casinos. Richmond has yet to select a developer, though the Pamunkey Indian Tribe announced plans in January to develop a $350 million resort and casino there. The Pamunkey Tribe is also leading the casino efforts in Norfolk.
“I think the legislature has finally realized exactly how much money we’ve been losing, not just from people going across the state lines going to casinos all across this nation, but I think they realize how many dollars we’ve had that we could’ve been using for our own roads and schools and just a multitude of things we could’ve taken care of had we passed something like this 20 years ago,” Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, told The Virginian-Pilot on Saturday.
The state has estimated new casino-resorts in the five communities would generate as much as $260 million in gaming tax revenue for the state and generate thousands of jobs.