After months of jockeying following a failed vote last November, Richmond Circuit Court Judge W. Reilly Marchant has ruled that another casino referendum will in fact appear on this year’s ballot.
This ruling is the latest development in a high-stakes saga that has been ongoing since the first referendum to build a casino in Richmond’s Southside neighborhood was narrowly rejected last year by a margin of less than 1,500 votes.
The renewed proposal has strong support from local figures, most notably Mayor Levar Stoney. He and Councilwoman Reva Trammell have posited that the economic benefits of the casino project would outweigh the existing concerns. These arguments were popular among fellow council members, who voted almost unanimously in favor of renewing the proposal in January.
Conversely, Senator Joe Morrissey (D–Petersburg) has emerged as one of the referendum’s biggest adversaries. Morrissey championed a budget amendment that would have required the state to conduct a viability study to see if the city of Petersburg could sustain two casinos. The study would have prevented another referendum from appearing on the ballot until 2023 at the earliest.
However, due to the fact that the state’s General Assembly adjourned on March 12 without passing said budget, Judge Reilly’s recent order makes this language largely irrelevant.
This year’s proposal is backed by the same operator as before—Urban ONE—but it features new provisions to incentivize its passing this time around, including property tax cuts and revenue allocations.
Urban ONE’s CEO Albert Liggins spoke at the Richmond City Council meeting earlier this year, where he acknowledged that the first proposal left many voters confused about money matters, and that Virginians weren’t given enough reasons to vote in favor of the $565 million casino project.
In the months following the council’s vote to revive the referendum, numerous residents and local institutions have voiced their frustrations, calling the decision undemocratic and leading many to make accusations of voter suppression.
Urban ONE had lined up Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E), the owner of the state’s Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums featuring HHR games, to manage the casino, but since the referendum P2E was acquired by Churchill Downs, which has not decided how it will participate in a second referendum.
