Tag: gaming

Hundreds of people descended upon Danville’s Main Street Tuesday to celebrate the opening of the $800 million Caesars Virginia, the third permanent casino to open in the state.

Caesars didn’t shortchange on spectacle for the first day. A faux Roman legionary struggled to climb out of a Rolls-Royce to join Vegas-style showgirls and others for the ribbon cutting, following an opening parade of race cars and supercars from Virginia International Raceway, Kaizen Autosport and Foreign Cars Italia.

Caesars Virginia is the state’s third permanent casino to open. Rivers Casino Portsmouth, the state’s first permanent casino, opened in January 2023. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol opened Nov. 14.

Caesars Entertainment CEO Thomas R. Reeg spoke to a crowd of visitors prior to the ribbon cutting. “We know that you Danville, as a city …. had choices from among many strong operators,” he said. “I hope you’re proud of what we’ve delivered you.”

As local officials and corporate leaders were photographed cutting the ribbon to open the casino, Nathan and Dana Seagle of Ridgeway patiently waited to go inside. By arriving at the casino at around 9:30 a.m., the couple were the 20th and 21st customers to enter. Both were looking forward to checking out the slot machines. “I lose it, he wins it back,” Dana Seagle joked.

Caesars Virginia offers more than 90,000 square feet of gaming space, including 1,500 slot machines, 79 live-action table games, 48 electronic table games, a poker room as well as Caesars Sportsbook.

That’s where a passel of photographers waited Tuesday afternoon to catch a shot of Dennis Rodman, the former Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls basketball legend, making the casino’s official first bet  — a parlay bet on every team he played for in the NBA.

Once visitors were allowed inside, some bypassed the casino, however, to tour the ornate facility and grounds. A statue of Augustus, the Roman emperor, stands at the entrance to greet visitors staying in the 320-room hotel tower. There’s also a full-service spa, a pool and hot tub and 50,000 square feet of meeting and convention space that serves double duty as a 2,500-seat live entertainment venue.

Additionally, the resort offers multiple bars and dining offerings, including Dan Dan Noodle Bar and a Starbucks. The Center Bar on Tuesday offered dueling pianists.

A line of visitors waited to eat at Ramsay’s Kitchen on Tuesday. The chain restaurant developed by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is located adjacent to registration at Caesars Virginia and offers more than 250 seating options, including a private dining room and an outdoor patio with views of Danville’s historic Three Sisters Smokestacks. Ramsay’s famous Beef Wellington goes for $74.95. Fish and chips is $29.95.

In the casino, visitors quickly stationed themselves behind slot machines like children looking for the last available seat in musical chairs.

Among the players were Ken and Libba Matthews, who traveled to Caesars Virginia’s opening day from Goldsboro, North Carolina, about three hours away. The couple said they visit casinos to play slots and Black Jack about once a month. Before Danville opened, that meant traveling to Harrah’s Cherokee Hotel and Casino Resort in western North Carolina or traveling to casinos out west, like to Las Vegas. Now, Libba Matthews said, they have another option.

Another celebrity, albeit one with a lower profile than Rodman, could be found waiting in line to enter Caesars Virginia’s poker room. Tim Batow, a professional poker player from Naples, Florida, expected to play for more than 13 hours Tuesday. His goal, he said, was “just to find some fun poker games to play.”

Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner was the general contractor on Caesars Virginia, which was designed by  Nevada architect Marnell Cos.

Caesars initially announced that Caesars Virginia would open on Dec. 12. But on Dec. 6, the company announced the Danville resort casino would open five days later due to “just delay overall,” according to a spokesperson.

Ken Larking, Danville’s city manager, said on Tuesday that when he first came to Danville in 2013, he could have never envisioned that the city, known as a former textile manufacturing giant, would one day draw visitors to a Caesars casino. “A big crowd,” he said. “People from everywhere [are] coming in to see Danville Virginia and learn about what we have going on here.”

Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones said that the citizens of Danville, who overwhelmingly voted to approve the casino in a 2020 referendum, also deserved a lot of credit for Tuesday’s opening. “This is all about them,” he said.

Danville held a competitive process to select a casino operators for Southern Virginia’s sole casino. That, Larking said, “led to a great development agreement” with Caesars.

Caesars donated $15 million to the City of Danville in 2020 as part of the agreement and paid another $5 million to purchase 78 acres of land, known as the Schoolfield site, from the Danville Industrial Development Authority to build the casino resort. The city also negotiated an annual supplemental payment from Caesars that is estimated to bring in $12 million a year “above and beyond the state gaming tax revenue,” Larking noted.

“I think because of the process that we used, we were able to attract what I believe to be the best operator in the state, probably the best property, and also the great additional revenue that our city is going to receive because of it,” he said.

Barron Fuller, regional president for Caesars Entertainment, told onlookers Tuesday that Caesars Virginia employs 1,200 workers.

In May, Danville’s City Council voted to amend its development agreement with Caesars Virginia. Under its original agreement, the resort casino had promised to hire 1,300 employees. Under the new agreement, Caesars agreed to hire 900 full-time employees who will be paid at least $31,200 a year or no less than 125% of the federal minimum wage, whichever is greater.

Reeg, while speaking Tuesday, pointed to Caesars’ temporary casino, located under a white tent across the street from the new casino resort. That facility, which opened in May 2023, has paid more than $66 million to Danville in gaming taxes, Caesars announced Dec. 6.

“The way that it was accepted in the community, and the way that you came to visit, and our players came, allowed us to make this even grander than it otherwise would have been,” Reeg said of Caesars Virginia. “That tent was a workhorse.”

Reeg also paid tribute to Chris Albrecht, the general manager of Caesars Virginia, who came to Danville in 2022 from Harrah’s Philadelphia.

“He was willing to raise his hand, uproot his life and move to a new community,” he said. “And he started with building the tent, staffing the tent, operating it, and then, at the same time, building this property behind you and staffing that.”

Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, which partnered with Caesars and ECBI Holdings to build Caesars Virginia, noted that the Eastern Band has partnered with Caesars on projects for 27 years. He taught the onlookers the Cherokee word “gadugi,” meaning to work together for the common good.

“This resort represents our commitment to this region,” he said.

In 2023, Virginia casinos generated $554.87 million in adjusted gaming revenues, based on Virginia Lottery data, including about $145 million in revenue generated by Caesars’ temporary Danville casino during its first six months of operation in 2023. Virginia law assesses a graduated tax on a casino’s adjusted gaming revenue. For the month of October, taxes from casino AGRs totaled about $11.54 million.

The temporary Caesars Virginia casino in Danville reported earning $18.21 million in AGR in October.

Under Virginia law, 6% of a casino operator’s AGR goes to its host locality until the operator passes $200 million in AGR for the year, at which point the host locality’s tax rate rises to 7%. If an operator passes $400 million in AGR in the calendar year, that rises to 8%.