Virginia Senate’s majority leader, Senator Scott Surovell, filed a bill Tuesday that would allow a resort-style casino in Fairfax County, likely in the Tysons area. Labor unions support the Tysons casino proposal, believing it will help bring jobs to the area, but some members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors have mixed views on the casino.
“It would generate hundreds of millions in tax revenue for both the Commonwealth and Fairfax County,” Surovell said. He says Virginians gamble at MGM National Harbor, generating about $300 million of tax revenue for Prince George’s County, Maryland, annually.
The topic has been raised before in the General Assembly but has never received enough support to move forward. Surovell has been interested in expanding casino gaming in Virginia since 2016, when MGM opened the aforementioned Maryland casino in Oxon Hill, near the Virginia border.
“It’s always really disturbed me that that thing was plopped right there to suck money out of our state that should be remaining in the state, helping to pay for schools and services,” Surovell said, as reported by WTOP News. “About one-third of it is being funded by Virginia residents going into Maryland.”
If approved, the bill would allow the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to hold a referendum on the project, which would move the issue to local voters for a yes-or-no vote.
“A lot of the opponents are basically saying that this bill authorizes a casino in the county — it doesn’t,” Surovell said. “All the bill does is authorize a process by which the voters could eventually approve one.”
The project wouldn’t only call for a casino. It would be an entertainment complex featuring a hotel, concert venue, and convention center.
One of the main arguments raised by critics has been that it would increase traffic gridlock in the Tysons area, which is already congested. In response to that, Surovell said the project would need to be located within a quarter-mile of Metro’s Silver Line.
“Part of the reason the state chose to invest billions of dollars in extending the Silver Line out this way was to put exactly this kind of density and this kind of activity at this location,” Surovell said. “The whole point of Metro is to try and get people to these locations without using cars.”
Virginia state lawmakers were supposed to begin their 2025 session Wednesday, but that was postponed until early next week due to citywide water disruptions in Richmond caused by the recent winter weather.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2025/01/09/91243-virginia-senate-39s-majority-leader-files-bill-to-allow-referendum-for-resortstyle-casino-in-tyson
