Richmond’s do-over casino referendum failed at the ballot box Nov. 7 by a much larger margin than the city’s first casino referendum did in 2021, as roughly 61% of Richmond voters rejected the proposed $562 million Richmond Grand Resort & Casino.
Leading up to the election, the casino’s corporate backers, Urban One and Churchill Downs, sank more than $10 million into advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts, including a free Isley Brothers concert next to an early voting polling place and free food truck meals for voters.
“We are proud to have run a community-centered campaign to create more opportunities for residents of this great city to rise into the middle class,” pro-casino PAC Richmond Wins, Vote Yes said in a statement after the referendum’s defeat.
With 72 precincts reporting, 39,768 Richmonders voted against the casino and 24,765 voted for it, a 61.62% to 38.38% margin, according to the Virginia Department of Elections. By comparison, the 2021 casino referendum failed by fewer than 1,500 votes, with 40,243 voters, or 50.95%, rejecting it.
With a budget just below $200,000, casino opponents made their cause visible with yard signs and letters to city residents, as well as an airplane flying over the Richmond Folk Festival in October with a banner reading “VOTE NO CASINO … AGAIN.”
“The people of Richmond have made the following clear: You can’t build a new city on old resentments. For too long, the politics of Richmond has been controlled by politicians and their allies who put their own self-interest before the public interest,” said Paul Goldman, a key casino opponent and former campaign manager for Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.
In the immediate days before the election, controversy erupted as casino proponents were dogged by reports of antisemitic and racially insensitive speech on Urban One-owned radio stations in Richmond, leading to a guest host being banned and Urban One issuing a public apology.
Several prominent Richmond organizations endorsed the casino proposal, including ChamberRVA, the Metropolitan Business League, Richmond Region Tourism, the Richmond NAACP and several local union chapters.
The proposed casino would have included a 250-room hotel, a 3,000-seat concert venue and a soundstage where Urban One pledged to invest $50 million over 10 years. Casino backers estimated that the project would have created 1,300 permanent jobs and generated $30 million in annual tax revenue.
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Richmond’s do-over casino referendum failed at the ballot box Tuesday by a much larger margin than the first casino referendum did in 2021, as about 61% of Richmond voters said no to the $562 million Richmond Grand Resort & Casino.
The pro-casino PAC Richmond Wins, Vote Yes issued a statement Tuesday night about the second Richmond casino referendum’s defeat: “We are proud to have run a community-centered campaign to create more opportunities for residents of this great city to rise into the middle class. We are grateful to the thousands of Richmonders who voted for good jobs and a stronger city, especially those in South Side who poured their hearts into this project.”
Everything was bigger this time, especially spending by the proposed Richmond casino’s corporate backers, Urban One and Churchill Downs, which sank more than $10 million into advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts that included a free Isley Brothers concert next to an early voting facility and subsidized food truck meals for voters through October and November.
But the controversy also was bigger, as the pro-casino side was dogged in recent days by reports of antisemitic and racially insensitive speech on Urban One-owned radio stations in Richmond.
In the end, the gap between “no” voters and “yes” voters was much bigger in 2023, after a narrow defeat of about 1,500 votes in 2021. This year, 64,533 people voted in Richmond, compared to about 79,000 in 2021, although the referendum’s geographical and demographic divide remained similar. With 72 precincts reporting Election Day votes and about 13,506 early votes and 4,705 absentee ballots counted, 39,768 Richmonders voted no and 24,765 people voted yes, a 61.62% to 38.38% margin, according to the Virginia Department of Elections’ website Wednesday.
In 2021, more of the city’s North Side and West End voters — typically whiter and wealthier — voted against the casino referendum, while more South Side and East End residents, in majority Black districts, voted yes. The divide was similar in 2023, with South Side precincts and a few others in Richmond’s East End with a “yes” majority.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a casino supporter who had put forward a plan to dedicate some of the casino’s tax revenue to providing child care in the city, said in a statement: “I will continue to be a voice for communities that have been historically overlooked and underserved. I will work for more accessible and affordable child care, for good-paying jobs, and for an abundance of opportunities for ALL Richmonders — no matter their zip code or socioeconomic status.”
Paul Goldman, a former campaign manager for Gov. L. Douglas Wilder and a key casino opponent, made a statement Tuesday night that included a jab at Stoney.
“The people of Richmond have made the following clear: You can’t build a new city on old resentments. For too long, the politics of Richmond has been controlled by politicians and their allies who put their own self interest before the public interest. Today, the people of Richmond said clearly those days are over. Those who can’t put aside the politics of resentment need to step aside, and I think we all know who they are. Richmond can afford right now to fix our schools, provide affordable day care, achieve equality for all and reduce the tax burden on the citizenry,” Goldman said. “The losing side tonight said the only way to do that is to fleece the poor. The winning side — a team effort of which I was one of many — said the way to do that is for all of us to work together for the common good. I’d like to think we can start on this new path tomorrow.”
On Wednesday just before closing of the stock market, Urban One’s shares were worth $3.45 each, down 38.94% from closing Tuesday, before the referendum results came in.
The proposed casino would have included a 250-room hotel, a 3,000-seat concert venue and a soundstage where Urban One pledged to invest $50 million over 10 years in TV, movie and audio productions. Casino backers estimated that the project would have created an estimated 1,300 permanent jobs and generated $30 million in annual tax revenue.
Unlike in 2021, Urban One joined this time with Kentucky-based Churchill Downs, which last year purchased the assets of Urban One’s previous casino partner, Peninsula Pacific Entertainment. Urban One and Churchill Downs were equal partners in the venture, and the companies spent about four times the amount Urban One spent in 2021, according to campaign finance reports.
The outcome? Extensive door knocking, TV ads, campaign mailers, free music and free food. Urban One-owned Praise 104.7 FM aired a daily “Richmond Grand Update” show that regularly included Cathy Hughes, founder and chairman of Urban One, promoting the project in conversations with host Gary Flowers, and in the final weekend before Election Day, the casino’s backers hosted parties in Richmond’s public housing neighborhoods.
Lushan Phang, owner of the Taste Good Authentic Jamaican Flavor food truck, was at the city registrar’s office parking lot on Nov. 1, handing out meals to a few takers. He said that at the end of the day, he would invoice the casino campaign $15 per lunch distributed. Phang noted it was way busier at the South Side location the previous week, compared to the registrar’s office north of the James River.
With a budget just below $200,000, casino opponents — including Paul Goldman, the Ukrop family and NewMarket Chairman CEO Thomas E. Gottwald — made their cause visible with yard signs and letters sent to city residents, as well as an airplane carrying a sign reading “VOTE NO CASINO … AGAIN” flying over the Richmond Folk Festival in October.
This year, casino proponents used their large budget and platform to get out the vote — but also contributed some negative commentary against casino opponents.
In October and early November, Hughes and two Urban One radio hosts used their radio broadcasts not only to promote the project but also to denigrate casino opponents. Speaking on the Praise 104.7 FM “Richmond Grand Update” program, Hughes criticized U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who opposed the 2021 referendum, and two Black activists who have spoken out about the casino, Allan-Charles Chipman and Chelsea Higgs Wise, whom Flowers called “self-hating Black people.” Hughes, in an Oct. 18 clip, characterized middle-class Black Richmonders who oppose the casino vs. working-class Black Richmonders who support it as “house n——s and field n——s.”
Competing Richmond casino signs outside the city registrar’s office, Nov. 1, 2023. Photo by Kate Andrews
In another instance, guest radio host Preston Brown was banned from Urban One’s 99.5 FM The Box for using “antisemitic language” to criticize a casino opponent, according to a statement from the Richmond Wins, Vote Yes PAC. The No Means No Casino website posted an audio clip of Brown saying on air, “Paul Goldman is a Jew who got the same trait as Judas. He’s a white Jew with the background of Judas. I’m talking about one person, and his name is Paul Goldman, and he’s a Judas. And I think somebody might have heard me say ‘Jew.’ He’s a Judas, and Judas was with Jesus.”
In a statement released Friday, Goldman accepted an apology offered by Hughes’ son, Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins. But Goldman added, “The whole pro-casino side seem oblivious to the damage they have done to Richmond. … It isn’t merely their failure to apologize to all the people individually singled out, but to our city as a whole, to our people as a whole. For the love of money, for personal gain, they are willing to turn their casino project into a wedge of division, to attempt to win by a divisive strategy serving only their selfish interests.”
However, several prominent Richmond leaders and organizations gave the project their approval, including ChamberRVA, the Metropolitan Business League, Richmond Region Tourism, former Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones and the Richmond NAACP, and several local union chapters joined the pro-casino side, focusing on jobs that casino officials said would provide an average of $55,000 in annual compensation — although that was likely to come out to about $16 an hour, depending on health care coverage, according to a VPM story.
Richmond casino referendum rhetoric took an ugly turn this week, as an Urban One radio host in Richmond compared anti-casino campaigner Paul Goldman to biblical traitor Judas and negatively referenced his Jewish faith — drawing condemnation as antisemitic speech — while speaking on air Wednesday about the casino referendum on city ballots this fall.
In an audio clip posted to the anti-casino group No Means No Casino’s website this week, Richmond radio personality Preston Brown — a longtime media presence in Richmond who has a radio show on Urban One-owned 99.5 FM The Box — said on air, “Paul Goldman is a Jew who got the same trait as Judas. He’s a white Jew with the background of Judas. I’m talking about one person, and his name is Paul Goldman, and he’s a Judas. And I think somebody might have heard me say ‘Jew.’ He’s a Judas, and Judas was with Jesus.”
Judas, according to the Bible, is the apostle who betrayed Jesus and led to his arrest and crucifixion. Richmond Wins Vote Yes, the pro-casino referendum campaign organization that has garnered about $10 million from corporate partners Churchill Downs and Urban One in pushing for the Richmond Grand casino proposal on city ballots, released the following statement Friday: “Richmond Wins Vote Yes is about bringing people together to build a better Richmond and provide meaningful economic opportunity for the city and its people. This campaign unequivocally condemns the antisemitic language and divisive comments that were made on the air.”
Marsha Landess, regional vice president of Radio One Richmond, representing Urban One’s radio stations based in Richmond, released a statement Friday regarding Brown’s comments. “The antisemitic comments heard on The Box 99.5 were made by a temporary guest host who was not an employee of the station,” she wrote. “These statements were horrible and offensive. Once we heard the comments and because he was alone in the studio with his producer, I personally drove to the station and immediately removed him from the show. He will not be appearing again. Our CEO, Alfred Liggins, has personally apologized to Mr. Goldman on behalf of the station and our company, and we again sincerely apologize to Mr. Goldman for these remarks and condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”
Goldman said in a statement Friday night that he didn’t ask for an apology from Liggins. “Yes, I was ticked off. I let him know. But I knew he was better than that.When he responded [Friday] morning with a gracious apology, I wasn’t surprised. And it is fully accepted. I understand the mayor has issued a press release apologizing to me. That too is fully accepted.”
On X (formerly Twitter), Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney wrote that he “unequivocally” condemns Brown’s remarks, adding, “I’m pleased to hear the station has issued an apology and fired the individual.”
Brown’s comments were among the most inflammatory posted on the No Means No website — drawing condemnation from former state Del. Lee Carter on X (formerly Twitter), who called the clip “disgusting.” However, Urban One founder and Chair Cathy Hughes is heard in other posted audio clips making critical comments about U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who spoke against the casino in 2021, and other prominent casino opponents, including Ukrop’s Homestyle Foods Chairman and CEO Bobby Ukrop and Allan-Charles Chipman, an unsuccessful 2022 Richmond City Council candidate. Hughes’ comments were recorded during the “Richmond Grand Update” program, which has aired weekdays on Praise 104.7 FM, another Urban One station in Richmond, since September.
Regarding the other clips, Landess released this statement Friday: “The clips that have been posted online combine more than one show. The majority of the clips are from a morning show on Praise 104.7, where the primary voices heard are host Gary Flowers and Cathy Hughes. The clips involving Preston Brown are from a totally separate nighttime show on Box 99.5. He was a guest host on the show and was immediately removed. He and his producer were the only people in the studio for that show. No others.”
Discussing the Confederate statues in Richmond that were removed between 2020 and 2022, and placed in the custody of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, Hughes is heard saying in a Nov. 1 clip, “Tim Kaine may have wanted one in his front yard.” On Oct. 27, she says, “This man was the mayor of the city and a civil rights lawyer. He knows the pain of the Black people of the South Side of Richmond … but he’s saying that it’s better for a Black man to get drunk off some beer that he financed at a local brewery than to have a job. How do you equate that?”
On Oct. 19, Hughes is heard speaking about Ukrop, whom she says hired a plane to fly a banner reading “VOTE NO CASINO … AGAIN” over the site of the Richmond Folk Festival last month, although it’s not clear who exactly hired the plane for this purpose. Hughes is heard saying, “No. 1, somebody needs to help this old man, because 85% of everybody at that Folk Festival comes from outside of the Richmond area. We worked it two years ago, and we couldn’t find nobody from Richmond.”
In an Oct. 24 clip, casino opponents Chipman and Richmond marijuana activist Chelsea Higgs Wise are called “self-hating Black folk” by “Richmond Grand Update” host Gary Flowers, who alleges that they were paid to oppose the casino. Chipman took to X on Friday to say that he has not been paid by the no-casino campaign. “This is false and I’ve never received nor would I receive a dime for this,” he wrote. Higgs Wise, meanwhile, posted on Facebook, “my NO isn’t funded. Your radio comments are repulsive.”
Goldman’s statement, which recalls his history as former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s campaign manager, continued with criticism of the pro-casino faction, specifically naming Stoney, Liggins, Hughes and Churchill Downs.
“The whole pro-casino side seem oblivious to the damage they have done to Richmond,” Goldman wrote. “Doug Wilder and I spent years trying to move our state and our city forward. We teamed up with then Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine and the late [U.S. Rep.] Donald McEachin to do that. So have others. But it sadly remains a long, difficult journey, with a long way to go. But as our slogan in his historic gubernatorial race said: We have come too far to turn back now.
“And this is why I feel the mayor, Alfred, Ms. Hughes, Churchill Downs and the whole pro side miss the true meaning of the damage they have done to Richmond. It isn’t merely their failure to apologize to all the people individually singled out. But to our city, as a whole, to our people, as a whole. For the love of money, for personal gain, they are willing to turn their casino project into a wedge of division, to attempt to win by a divisive strategy serving only their selfish interests.”
Pressing for the finish
The broader issue, amid these comments aired on Urban One-owned radio stations in Richmond, is the record-breaking pro-casino spending by Urban One and Churchill Downs, who would be partners in the Richmond Grand Resort & Casino if the referendum passes on Tuesday. In 2021’s effort, Urban One sank about $2.6 million into its pro-casino campaign; this year, the two corporations have donated more than $10 million to the Richmond Wins Vote Yes committee. Beyond the normal expenses of campaign mailers and advertising, the campaign hosted a free Isley Brothers concert next to an early voting location Saturday on the city’s South Side, not far from the casino’s intended site, and has been subsidizing meals at all three early voting sites in October and November.
On Friday morning, Flowers and guest co-host Clovia Lawrence, with Hughes speaking by phone, promoted the casino referendum and discussed plans on Saturday to host parties with free music and food in some of the city’s mostly Black neighborhoods, as well as to offer free rides to the polls on Tuesday.
The Federal Communications Commission’s rules regarding political speech on radio stations do not specifically address the issue of referendums, although the FCC fact sheet on political programming says that the agency does not “require broadcast stations and other regulatees to provide all sides of controversial issues.” Separately, the FCC’s “payola” regulations say that if a broadcast station has received or been promised payment for airing program material, the station must disclose that information when the material airs, but the rules do not address the discussion of business ventures by the radio station’s owner, as would apply to Urban One and the prospective casino.
Casino opponents, meanwhile, are working with a much smaller budget, with No Means No Casino having raised about $200,000 as of Oct. 31, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. They’ve made their cause visible with yard signs and letters sent to city residents, as well as the aforementioned airplane flying over the Richmond Folk Festival in October.
Sen. Kaine’s office said he was not available Friday to make a comment.
A Richmond nonprofit organization is continuing its effort to block the city’s do-over casino referendum — even though the measure is already on ballots and early voting is underway.
Richmond Lodge No. 1 of the Good Lions this week filed a notice to appeal an August decision by a Richmond Circuit Court judge who ruled in favor of the City of Richmond, allowing the referendum to appear on city ballots this fall.
The lodge, a nonprofit that runs charitable bingo games to raise money, filed a motion in Richmond Circuit Court in August to prevent the referendum, which asks voters to decide whether to allow the construction of the $562 million Richmond Grand Resort & Casino proposed by Urban One and Churchill Downs.
Late in August, Richmond Circuit Judge W. Reilly Marchant ruled against the lodge, which claimed that Richmond City Council had not run a competitive bidding process before voting in June to select RVA Entertainment Holdings — a joint venture between Urban One and Churchill Downs — as the city’s preferred casino operator.
Attorneys for the Good Lions, who claim they will lose future gaming revenue if the casino is built, filed a notification to appeal on Wednesday. As of Friday, the Virginia Court of Appeals had not received a brief from the organization. According to the clerk’s office, the appeal may not have a hearing until November. Meanwhile, early voting for the Nov. 7 general elections in Virginia started Friday, including in Richmond.
In a statement Friday, the lieutenant governor of the Good Lions’ Richmond chapter rebuked the judge’s decision that the group lacks standing to intervene in the vote, which is the second casino referendum put before Richmond voters, after the initial referendum failed by 1,200 votes in 2021. This year’s referendum, if passed, would approve a similar casino resort, with a 250-room hotel, a 3,000-seat concert venue, a $26.5 million upfront payment to the city government and a soundstage where co-developer Urban One pledges to invest $50 million over 10 years in TV, movie and audio productions. Richmond Grand would be built on 100 acres in the city’s South Side, just off Interstate 95, on property owned by Altria Group.
“If our charity, which would be decimated by this proposal, doesn’t have standing to bring this case, then no person or organization does, and how can that be the case? The handling of this process is obviously unconstitutional,” said Alexis Prutzman, lieutenant governor of Richmond’s Lodge No. 1 of the Good Lions. “Our work has benefited so many in Richmond and beyond and has given millions of dollars to worthy philanthropic causes, which is motivation enough for us to continue to fight this with everything we have.”
Marchant wrote in his Aug. 23 ruling, “Arguably, Good Lions’ alleged future loss of gaming revenue might be fairly traceable to the 2019 legislation of the Virginia General Assembly allowing casino gambling, but that government action is not what Good Lions seeks to challenge. … Good Lions’ challenge to the City Council’s no bid/no notice process for selecting an operator of the casino, where Good Lions does not seek to be the operator, is not a challenge of government action fairly traceable to its expected loss of revenue,” he concluded.
Two attorneys from national law firm Eckert Seamans’ Richmond office, William H. Hurd and Annemarie DiNardo Cleary, are now representing the Good Lions, a change from the organization’s previous legal representation by Chap Petersen, a Fairfax County state senator who filed the Richmond Circuit Court motion last month. Hurd, a former state solicitor general who has significant experience filing appeals, acknowledged Friday that he will represent the Good Lions.
Chuck Lessin, who owns the bingo hall in Richmond that the Good Lions lease for games and is acting as a spokesman for the casino opponents, said Friday that he doesn’t expect the matter to be settled before Election Day. The state’s appeal process gives the court clerk 40 days after an appeal is filed to make it available to the opposing party and set hearing dates, and counsel for the parties can also ask for extensions.
Even so, if the Good Lions prevail in the court of appeals, the Richmond referendum vote would be considered null and void, said Lessin, who served as chairman of Virginia’s Charitable Gaming Board until he resigned in February after a General Assembly controversy over Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournaments.
If the Good Lions win, the City of Richmond could appeal the ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court, Lessin noted, but added, “Essentially … a yes vote could not supersede the Virginia Constitution. A yes vote could really turn out to be a no vote.”
High stakes
The stakes are high for the casino’s corporate backers, who have sunk more money into the campaign than any other referendum under consideration in Virginia, and even outpaced donations to most state lawmakers and challengers seeking election.
According to Virginia Public Access Project’s finance report for political donations made through Aug. 31, Urban One and Churchill Downs contributed $8.14 million to the Richmond Wins, Vote Yes pro-casino PAC in August, more than three times the 2021 pro-casino campaign budget of $2.6 million. The Richmond Wins PAC also has created its own committee called Richmonders for Good Jobs, and donated $800,000 to it, according to state campaign finance reports.
Richmonders for Good Jobs’ mailing address is listed at 3204 Cutshaw Ave. in Richmond, the same address as the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Local Lodge 10. This year’s casino campaign has featured significant public support from local union members, who have spoken in favor of the project as supporting an expected 1,300 permanent casino jobs with average salaries of $55,000. Since 2021, according to VPAP, Urban One has made donations to state lawmakers in both parties.
Casino backers, including the majority of Richmond City Council and Mayor Levar Stoney, also have touted the project’s projected $30 million in annual tax revenue and $16 million over 10 years in charitable contributions. Stoney also announced that if the referendum succeeds this year, the city will allocate $26 million of the $30 million in annual revenue toward affordable child care as soon as fall 2024. Roughly $5 million would be placed in a Childcare and Education Trust Fund, the mayor said.
But Lessin said that large casinos like the one proposed in Richmond and those approved by voters in Bristol, Danville, Norfolk and Portsmouth “decimate” organizations like the Good Lions, which were the only legal operators of Virginia gaming parlors under state charitable gambling laws before 2019’s General Assembly vote that legalized commercial casinos in the commonwealth.
Charitable gaming also has suffered from the state’s introduction of skilled games, which appear similar to slot machines but let users bet on historic horse races at venues like Rosie’s Gaming Emporium. Those games, Lessin said, have “stripped about 60%” of local charities’ income from gaming, and he expects that the state’s new casinos will likely end most charitable betting parlors in the cities where they are being built, ultimately depriving people and groups that benefit from the Good Lions and other organizations’ philanthropy.
Although the Good Lions or any other charities did not vocally oppose the first Richmond casino referendum because of the City of Richmond’s extended vetting process in 2021, said Lessin, City Council’s 8-1 vote this year to approve Urban One and Churchill Downs’ proposal without considering others led the charity to take action in court. Richmond’s casino backers, he said, “have given millions of dollars in political donations, and they have swayed votes.”
Lessin said that charitable betting accounts for only 1.84% of all gambling in the state — taking into account the Virginia Lottery, sportsbook and other legal gaming options — and that charities are not allowed to make political contributions with their gaming income. Promoters of casinos, however, say they are bringing better jobs and funding for infrastructure, education and other needs in Virginia’s five economically challenged cities approved by the state to hold referendums.
A spokesman for the Richmond casino campaign and the city attorneys’ office did not immediately return messages seeking comment Friday.
The corporate backers of a $562 million Richmond casino on Thursday unveiled a new name for the resort casino city voters will consider approving this fall: Richmond Grand Resort & Casino. But not much else appears to be new about the proposed project.
Many of the features of the proposed ONE Casino + Resort that failed in a close 2021 referendum, are similar this time around, including a 250-room hotel, a 3,000-seat concert venue, a $26.5 million upfront payment to the city government, an estimated 1,300 permanent jobs with an average salary of $55,000 and a predicted $30 million in annual tax revenue and $16 million over 10 years in charitable contributions. Also part of the proposal again is a soundstage where co-developer Urban One pledges to invest $50 million over 10 years in TV, movie and audio productions. The casino, if passed, would be built on 100 acres in the city’s South Side, just off Interstate 95, on property owned by Altria Group.
The chief executives of business partners Urban One and Churchill Downs said Thursday that the plan’s details reflect an extensive survey of Richmond voters who supported and opposed the casino referendum two years ago. They said the project will create a 55-acre park in what has been industrial property, and that locally owned businesses, including restaurants, will have a chance to be part of the resort.
Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins acknowledged Thursday evening at a Richmond news conference that although his media conglomerate knows plenty about advertising, it was new to the arena of building political support.
“It’s no secret that we didn’t make a winning case in 2021,” he said, adding that the casino campaign that lost by 1,200 votes was driven by splashy billboards — rather than conversations with city voters.
“I know that [the] last go-round, we bought every billboard … in the entire city, and you know, it was probably annoying,” Liggins said. “Problem is, we should have been talking to more people, as opposed to advertising to more people.”
In the past year, as Richmond casino backers fought for a second referendum while other state officials attempted to win a chance for Petersburg to vote on a casino, “we have had hundreds of conversations with Richmonders,” Liggins said.
Thursday’s announcement took place at a Shockoe Bottom storefront that will be home to the pro-casino campaign, managed by Richmond resident Tierra Ward, a local elections director for the Virginia Democrats. She said after the news conference that she is still hiring staff. Also on hand were local union members who have spoken in favor of the jobs the project is expected to create, as well as three Richmond City Council members who also support the plan.
William Carstanjen, the CEO of Kentucky-based Churchill Downs, said that when his company purchased Peninsula Pacific Entertainment in November 2022 for $2.75 billion, he was “very aware” of the proposed Richmond casino project, which PPE had partnered with Urban One on in 2021. “We did a lot of due diligence on it. We were really excited about the opportunity. We joined the project after we completed the acquisition, based on the relationship we have developed with [Liggins].”
Churchill Downs, which owns the Kentucky Derby and is an investor in casinos in 13 states, is an equal partner in the proposed casino with Urban One, Carstanjen said, and if the referendum passes in November, it will become a significant part of his company’s holdings in Virginia, which also include Colonial Downs in New Kent County and six Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums across the state.
The new name — which Carstanjen said was one of “dozens and dozens” of suggestions the team heard during conversations and phone and online surveys of city residents — seems to be part of an effort to make Richmonders feel a greater sense of ownership in the project. Liggins declined to say what the budget for the current campaign is, or if it would exceed its $2 million in spending for the 2021 election, but noted, “the reality is, we’re going to invest what we need to get the proper message to as many people as possible.”
Carstanjen didn’t specify what his company would do if the referendum failed a second time, saying, “This is a project that needs to get done in Richmond … and we put together the team that can do it. Now we just have to take our message to the citizens of Richmond and convince them, and we think we can do that.”
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