- Laws seeks to allow a on line casino in Northern Virginia
- The on line casino invoice would designate Fairfax County, particularly, Tysons, for on line casino playing
For a fourth yr in a row, laws in Virginia has been launched to allow a on line casino in Fairfax County.
A on line casino rendering for Tysons in Fairfax County makes use of Wynn Resorts’ Encore likeness for the resort element. Wynn Resorts will not be instantly concerned within the Northern Virginia on line casino talks. (Picture: Comstock Firms)
Regardless of widespread native pushback, together with an official opposition assertion from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, some state lawmakers in Richmond are uninterested in seeing many tens of millions of annual tax {dollars} circulation into Maryland as a result of there isn’t a on line casino in Northern Virginia.
Senate Bill 756 comes from Senate Majority Chief Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax). The invoice would add Fairfax County to the checklist of localities eligible to host a on line casino within the commonwealth.
Confronted with rising property taxes and mounting native authorities finances issues, which resulted within the county lately enacting a much-despised 4% meals surcharge that might devastate many small eating places, Surovell says Fairfax wants new financial drivers.
“Fairfax County is dealing with a $130 million finances deficit, they usually’re dealing with a deficit so far as the attention can see,” Surovell mentioned final month. “[The county] continuously asks us for added authority to lift income, and this might current an enormous alternative.”
With no on line casino in Northern Virginia, many take their gaming enterprise to MGM Nationwide Harbor in close by Oxon Hill, although the 20-mile drive from Fairfax can take an hour or longer because of site visitors. This week, a scaled-back Las Vegas Sphere was introduced for the MGM property.
Fairfax On line casino Retains Tysons Location
Surovell is following Sen. David Marsden (D-Fairfax), who beforehand championed the Fairfax County on line casino payments, in maintaining the gaming growth remoted to a single property web site.
“A on line casino gaming institution thought-about by Fairfax County shall be positioned inside one-quarter of a mile of an present station on the Metro Silver Line, a part of a coordinated mixed-use undertaking growth consisting of a minimum of 1.5 million sq. toes, inside two miles of a regional enclosed mall containing not lower than 1.5 million sq. toes of gross constructing space, and out of doors of the Interstate 495 Beltway,” SB675 reads.
The situation language is copied from earlier Fairfax County on line casino payments. The specifics restrict the on line casino to a 30-acre property subsequent to the Adaire residential high-rise positioned between Spring Hill Rd. and Tyco Rd. at Leesburg Pike.
Opponents to the on line casino recurrently cite state lobbying from Comstock Firms, an actual property developer that has been behind the gaming payments since day one. Comstock owns the property at 8546 Leesburg Pike, which is throughout the on line casino invoice’s web site language.
Renderings of what a on line casino would appear like in Tysons makes use of likeness of Wynn Resorts properties. Wynn Resorts, nevertheless, instructed On line casino.org in December that whereas it has talked with Comstock, nothing critical has materialized.
Fast Response
Surovell didn’t launch a public assertion on the 2026 Fairfax County on line casino invoice. The various entities opposed did.
Latest polling exhibits that 75% of Fairfax County residents oppose a on line casino growth in Tysons, and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has said its opposition as a part of its 2026 Legislative Package deal. This laws clearly units a troubling precedent for legislators in Richmond to override native land-use selections regardless of sturdy neighborhood opposition,” the Tysons Stakeholders Alliance, a gaggle against the on line casino, wrote.
“ Reston Residents Affiliation and the No Fairfax On line casino Coalition are usually not shocked to see Sen. Surovell push his agenda with yet one more particular function invoice for a on line casino in Fairfax County,” mentioned RCA president Lynne Mulston. “We’re ready to proceed our opposition by means of grassroots engagement.”
