Va. casino gaming revenues total $65M in March

Virginia’s three casinos reported about $65.08 million in gaming revenues for March, according to Virginia Lottery data released April 15.

Last month, the Bristol Casino: Future Home of Hard Rock reported about $16.27 million in adjusted gaming revenues (wagers minus winnings), of which about $13 million came from its 911 slots and about $3.26 million came from its 29 table games. The Bristol casino temporary facility opened in July 2022, making it Virginia’s first operating casino. The Virginia Lottery Board approved HR Bristol’s casino license in April 2022.

After the lottery board approved its license in November 2022, Rivers Casino Portsmouth opened as Virginia’s first permanent casino in January 2023. In March, it generated about $19.5 million from its 1,462 slots and about $8.2 million from its 81 table games for a total AGR of about $27.7 million.

The temporary Caesars Virginia casino in Danville, which received its casino license in April 2023 and opened in May 2023, reported about $16.36 million in AGR from its 804 slots and about $4.7 million from its 33 table games, totaling about $21 million last month.

March’s casino gaming revenues were a 13.5% increase from the $57.3 million reported in February.

Virginia law assesses a graduated tax on a casino’s adjusted gaming revenue. For the month of March, taxes from casino AGRs totaled $11.7 million.

The host cities of Portsmouth and Danville received 6% of their respective casinos’ AGRs: about $1.66 million and $1.26 million, respectively. For the Bristol casino, 6% of its adjusted gaming revenue — about $976,200 last month — goes to the Regional Improvement Commission, which the General Assembly established to distribute Bristol casino tax funds throughout Southwest Virginia.

The Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund receives 0.8% of total taxes — about $93,700 last month. The Family and Children’s Trust Fund, which funds family violence prevention and treatment programs, receives 0.2% of the monthly total, about $23,400 in March.

There is currently one other casino underway in Virginia: the $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino in Norfolk. The developers — a partnership between the King William-based Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Tennessee billionaire Jon Yarbrough — submitted new plans to the city, aiming to start continuous, rather than phased, construction in spring 2024.

The Norfolk Architectural Review Board is the first body to review plans in the approval process, which ends with the Norfolk City Council. The board was initially set to review the new plans in January, but the developers have continued the review indefinitely. The casino must obtain its license from the lottery board by November 2025, or the referendum approved by Norfolk voters in 2020 becomes null and void under state law.

“The Pamunkey Tribe has continued to work diligently with its architecture and engineering teams to produce the additional design work necessary to address the direction provided by [Norfolk] City Council. Until that work is completed, we have asked for a continuance before the ARB,” Jay Smith, spokesperson for HeadWaters Resort & Casino, said in a statement after the Architectural Review Board’s Jan. 22 meeting. “As soon as we are confident that the plans meet the needs of the city and Tribe, we will ask to be put on the ARB agenda. … Once design is completed, we will employ an aggressive construction schedule to bring this project to life.”

Petersburg will likely hold a casino referendum this fall, something its lawmakers have pushed for since Richmond voters first rejected a proposed $562 million casino proposal in their city — and then rejected it a second time. On Wednesday, the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate passed Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s amended version of a bill, sponsored by Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, replacing Richmond with Petersburg among Virginia cities eligible to host a casino if voters approve it.