Temporary Petersburg casino to open in January

A temporary casino preceding the $1.4 billion Live! Casino & Hotel Resort in Petersburg is expected to open in January 2026, employing 500 workers, according to the casino’s developer, The Cordish Cos.

The temporary facility is being built near the site of the permanent casino on a 100-acre site off Interstate 95 in Petersburg, near Wagner Road and Brasfield Parkway. It will include 75,000 square feet of gaming space, 900 slots, 33 live-action table games, a bar and a quick-service restaurant.

While the licensing process is still ongoing, casino spokesperson Renee Mutchnik said via email that the temporary site is on track to open at the beginning of the year.

“We are actively reviewing applications, conducting interviews and hiring qualified candidates,” she said. “We will have 500 team members for the temporary casino.”

Initially, developers expected the temporary site to open by the end of this year. The revised estimate opening date to January reflects a slight delay in plans.

“The opening was always dependent on regulatory approval and until that time we will not have an opening date,” Mutchnik said in an email.

Baltimore-based Cordish and Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith Enterprise broke ground in March on the much-anticipated casino and hotel resort. They anticipate the project will create 1,400 permanent jobs.

The permanent Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia is slated to open in 2027. Once complete, the site will include more than 450,000 square feet of gaming, lodging and dining space. It will also feature 75,000 square feet of meeting, convention and entertainment space, 1,600 slot machines, 65 live-action table games, high-limit slot and table areas, and a 200-room hotel with 20 suites, a pool and fitness center.

Cordish has tapped gaming industry veteran Penny Parayo as senior vice president and general manager for Live! Casino Virginia, both the temporary and permanent facilities.

“We are incredibly fortunate as a company to have a leader as skilled and knowledgeable as Penny, and we’re so pleased to elevate her to a position where she can have even greater impact on the growth of our organization,” said Joe Billhimer, chief operating and development officer for Cordish Gaming Group, in a statement.

Parayo most recently served as senior vice president of property operations for Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, Maryland. She also served as vice president of slot and beverage operations at the Maryland location from 2013 to 2018.

The Petersburg casino is on track to be one of five casinos in Virginia.

So far, Virginia has three operating casinos: Rivers Casino Portsmouth, the state’s first permanent casino; the Hard Rock Bristol Casino, which opened in November; and the Caesars Virginia casino in Danville, which opened in December.

Meanwhile, the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Boyd Gaming started construction on the long-delayed Norfolk casino in February.

All four of those casino projects were passed via local referendum in 2020, but Richmond voters rejected an Urban One casino project in 2021 and 2023 votes. Last 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. However, Roanoke is interested in hosting a casino, and boosters have also been trying to seek support in the General Assembly for a casino in Fairfax County.