Petersburg, Va., Casino Dreams Canned, as Senate Committee Dismisses Gaming Bill
Bringing a gambling casino to Petersburg, Va., was a short-lived stargaze for those who supported the effort, to the highest degree notably VA country Senator Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond).
Morrissey introduced Senate Bill 203 shortly after voters inwards Richmond rejected a local ballot referendum in conclusion November regarding a commercial message cassino development. capital of Virginia was single of quintet cities in VA that qualified to moot a gambling casino holiday resort below the state’s 2020 gaming package.
When efforts began inwards capital of Virginia to re-ask local voters regarding the cassino inwards hopes of a different outcome, Morrissey authored SB203 to permit nearby Petersburg Campaign to look at a casino, patch simultaneously prohibiting Richmond from holding a arcsecond casino balloting for the next pentad years.
Morrisey said Richmond city officials were not respecting the testament of the people. But he, too, supports bringing a cassino to the upper-case letter realm inwards say to make young jobs and taxation revenue.
However, body politic lawmakers this calendar week said the 2020 gaming note prohibited non-qualifying cities and towns, such as Petersburg, from mulling a casino. The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee rejected SB203 yesterday past a 9-7 vote.
Richmond Retains License
Virginia’s 2020 cassino bill, which ended decades of opposite inwards the commonwealth to Las Vegas-style one-armed bandit machines and tabularize games, came with qualifying criteria cities must match inwards order to weigh a gaming project. The conditions include an unemployment value of at to the lowest degree 5 percent in 2018 and a poverty charge per unit of at to the lowest degree 20 percent in 2017, positive a lower limit population decline of 20 percent experienced between 1990 and 2016.
Richmond, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Bristol, and Danville were the pentad qualifying cities. Voters inwards all but Richmond passed their local gaming referendums.
Members of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee who voted against Morrissey’s elbow grease to relocate Richmond’s cassino rights to Petersburg sonant concerns. They claimed that the 2020 bank note did non bring home the bacon such concessions inward the case of voters in a qualifying urban center rejecting the gambling casino opportunity.
Richmond City Councilor Reva Trammell pleaded before the Senate citizens committee asking for Morrissey’s bank bill to be tossed. Trammell is leading a council exertion to property the gambling casino inquiry before voters inwards November for a endorsement consecutive year,
Please net ball us experience a indorsement chance inward Richmond,” she told commonwealth lawmakers.
Trammell got her way, at least for now. Morrissey, who told reporters that he was “thunderstruck” regarding the committee vote, plans to discuss his discomfited step with the Democratic caucus and attempt and resurrect the legislation.
Richmond Redo?
The capital of Virginia City Council is already moving send on with ordinances to again expect urban center dwellers to livelihood a casino initiative. The council has sanctioned of several ordinances introduced past Trammell that renews the city’s innkeeper agreement with Urban One, and another to ram a secondly gaming vote.
Urban One is a Black-focused media conglomerate that has partnered with gaming manipulator Peninsula Pacific Ocean Entertainment for its Richmond casino project. The partnership’s proposed $565 trillion ONE Casino + Resort bidding was selected finally May as the winner of quint proposals past Richmond’s Resort Casino Evaluation Panel.