Petersburg casino passes with 81% of unofficial vote

Updated Nov. 6

More than 80% of Petersburg voters said yes to the city’s casino referendum, according to unofficial Election Day results from the Virginia Department of Elections, as of 9:45 p.m. Tuesday.

The vote gives a green light to Cordish Cos.’ $1.4 billion Live! Casino & Hotel, set to be built on an undeveloped 100-acre site off Interstate 95 in Petersburg. It is the fifth casino voters have approved in Virginia, where casino gaming facilities were legalized by the General Assembly in 2020 with the requirement that local voters pass a referendum in support of a casino.

According to the Virginia Board of Elections’ unofficial tally Tuesday night, 10,265 voters selected “yes,” compared to 2,325 people voting no.

“We are deeply gratified by the community’s affirmation of this project and very hopeful about the meaningful impact it will have on the city’s future,” Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith, co-developer of the project, said in a statement Tuesday. “The casino will not only create good-paying jobs for our residents but will also attract visitors statewide and beyond, stimulating local businesses and in turn producing an overall ripple effect of economic growth. Now that the voters have spoken, we look forward to working with the City of Petersburg and the Virginia Lottery to secure all of the necessary permitting, licensing and regulatory approvals for this project to move forward.”

Developers said earlier this year that the Petersburg casino resort would be built in phases. The first phase would include a 200,000-square-foot casino, featuring 1,000 slot machines and 23 table games. The full 400,000-square-foot project, to be completed two years after approvals, would include a 200-room hotel, 1,600 slot machines, 46 live-action table games, a 3,000-seat entertainment venue and eight food and entertainment establishments, three of which would be reserved for Petersburg businesses. Smith said he anticipated 1,500 jobs with average salaries of $70,000, and an estimated $240 million in local tax revenue in the first 10 years. In a news release Tuesday, the developers say they expect the project to create 6,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.

Virginia has three operating casinos: Rivers Casino Portsmouth, the state’s first permanent casino; the Caesars Virginia temporary casino in Danville; and the temporary Bristol Casino: Future Home of Hard Rock, which opened in Bristol in July 2022. The permanent $515 million Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol is set to stage its grand opening Nov. 14, and according to Caesars Virginia officials, the permanent, $750 million Danville casino is expected to open in December. Meanwhile, the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Boyd Gaming broke ground in October for the long-delayed Norfolk casino.

All four of those casino projects were passed via local referendum in 2020, but Richmond voters rejected the Urban One casino project in 2021 and 2023 votes. Earlier this year, Virginia General Assembly lawmakers passed legislation that gave Petersburg a chance to host a casino, pending voters’ approval of a referendum on the November ballot, and barred Richmond from a third try. The state’s casino laws cap the number of casinos to one per city in five designated cities: Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Portsmouth and now Petersburg, which replaced Richmond.

Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., which was among competing casino developers in Richmond, and Smith, a NFL Hall of Fame member and owner of Bruce Smith Enterprise, teamed up to vie for the opportunity to develop a casino in Petersburg. Five development groups put in bids, and in April, a controversy erupted when Petersburg city councilors accused Petersburg-based state Sen. Lashrecse Aird, who sponsored legislation to hold a casino referendum vote in Petersburg, of pressuring city officials to choose Bally’s Corp. as developer.

Aird disputed the allegation, and Petersburg City Council ultimately chose Cordish as the casino’s developer. In 2022, the Petersburg council voted to approve Cordish as a potential casino developer, as Petersburg officials began trying to win state approval to hold a casino referendum there following the casino’s first defeat in Richmond.

“The approval of the destination resort and casino in Petersburg marks a significant milestone for our city,” Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham said. “Voter approval follows a three-year journey on this transformative project that will bring positive change to Petersburg for generations. This destination resort, casino, retail and residential development will be the largest economic and tourism project in Petersburg’s history. City Council and administration look forward to working with the Cordish Cos. and Bruce Smith Enterprise to positively impact our community and its prosperity.”

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, the pro-casino Vote Yes Petersburg committee funded by a Cordish limited liability company spent more than $1 million this year on its campaign to pass the referendum, with the majority of money going toward campaign marketing materials and advertising. Unlike in Richmond, there appeared to be no coordinated opposition campaign against the Petersburg casino.