Chips on the table

This story has been updated since publication. 

For Roy Corby, Hampton Roads evokes vacation vibes. He grew up in Ocean City, New Jersey, but his family vacationed regularly in Virginia Beach for a change in seaside scenery.

Nearly two years ago, Corby returned to open and run Rivers Casino Portsmouth as its general manager.

It was a homecoming of sorts, he says, and so far, it’s been a welcoming one.

Corby and the region’s business officials have high hopes that Rivers Casino, owned by Chicago’s Rush Street Gaming, and a planned Norfolk casino will bring significant tourism dollars to Hampton Roads. 

But whether the casinos will boost tourism is unclear, and the Norfolk casino is still in planning stages, despite having been approved by voters in 2020.

In August, the developers of Norfolk’s $500 million casino — the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Tennessee investor Jon Yarbrough — presented a new design for the Harbor Park project to the Norfolk Architectural Review Board, after a seven-month delay. Next, City Council will decide whether to approve the new design for construction. 

In September, the Norfolk City Council voted 7-1 to approve a new development agreement between the city, the tribe and Boyd Gaming, which replaces Yarbrough as the tribe’s corporate partner. If all goes to plan, the city will have a temporary casino open by November 2025 — the state’s deadline by which the casino must be licensed by the Virginia Lottery, or else the 2020 casino referendum vote will be null and void — and a permanent resort in 2027.

Meanwhile Rivers Casino, which opened as the state’s first permanent casino in January 2023, is drawing business mostly from Virginia residents.

In its first year, Rivers Casino generated $18.3 million in tax revenue for Portsmouth, up from officials’ projection of $16 million, says Brian Donahue, the city’s economic development director. Total revenue from January 2023 through March 31 was $329 million, the state lottery reported. The casino also outshone Virginia’s two temporary casinos — Caesars Entertainment’s Danville Casino and Hard Rock International’s Bristol Casino — in gaming revenue. 

“We have seen a stabilization of the casino and its performance in Portsmouth,” Donahue says. “The revenues that were realized last year are what can be expected going forward.”

Along with games, the Portsmouth casino houses restaurants, bars and a 25,000-square-foot event space, where it hosts weddings, conventions, concerts and comedians. A hotel was originally planned at Rivers, but Corby says the casino is still exploring that addition.

As of late July, Rivers had surpassed 3 million customers since its opening. Most of its patrons come from a 60-mile radius, including Richmond and North Carolina, Corby says.

“A good number of our visitors are people who are coming down to go to the beach for a day, and come out to the casino at night,” he says.

That matches national trends for casino traffic, says Bob McNab, economics department chair at Old Dominion University, and director of the university’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. Most casinos draw patrons from a two-hour radius, he says. If state businesses attract visitors from within Virginia, those tourism dollars are simply recycled.

“If you are in Portsmouth or Danville, people aren’t getting on a plane to fly there. They are either locals or convenience travelers,” McNab says. In other words, don’t expect Hampton Roads to become the next Las Vegas.

“We have yet to see if Virginia can sustain the legally authorized casinos yet,” McNab adds. “On top of lottery sales, at some point, you have saturated the gambling market.”

Nearby businesses, from hotels to restaurants, stand to benefit from casino traffic, a key formula for economic development.

“That’s been the goal, for the casino to serve as a catalyst for additional investment,” says Donahue.

One new restaurateur, Alexis Glenn of the Table Tapas Bar, says he has yet to see casino patrons at the eatery, which opened in October 2023 and is less than a mile from Rivers Casino.

Lacy Peterson, manager of the Glass Light Hotel & Gallery in Norfolk, estimates that 10% to 15% of its business this year is from the casino. Mostly guests from the casino’s corporate office stay there, she says.

Rivers Casino also has faced regulatory woes. In the past year, the Virginia Lottery fined the casino $545,000 for several violations, including allowing underage people on the gaming floor, inaccurate accounting and surveillance of operations, and poor control of revenue and table game operations.

The Virginia Lottery would not comment on the fines, but Corby says the violations are a result of the challenges of training new employees who still are learning the business. The casino employed 1,127 people in late July, and the goal is to reach 1,300 workers.

Corby often goes to dealer classes to introduce himself to students. Like many of them, he got his start in the industry more than 20 years ago as a dealer. After years in the business, he most enjoys meeting new customers.

“The people aspect of the business is just fascinating to me,” he says.