Northern Virginia Casino Set For Senate Vote, Bill Wins ‘Casino Queen’ Support

Posted on: January 29, 2025, 12:17h. 

Last updated on: January 29, 2025, 12:27h.

Northern Virginia remains free of casinos with slot machines and table games, but legislation to potentially allow a gaming destination to come to Fairfax County continues to make progress in the General Assembly.

Northern Virginia casino Fairfax Tysons
The exterior of the Tysons Corner Center shopping mall in Fairfax County, Va. Legislation to possibly allow a casino in Northern Virginia continues to advance in the General Assembly. (Image: Shutterstock)

A year after Northern Virginia casino legislation led by state Sen. David Marsden (D-Fairfax) stalled in committee, a similar bill, this time championed by Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax), has cleared two committees and moved to the full Senate floor.

Despite legislative efforts to qualify Fairfax County for a casino persisting in each of the last three legislative sessions, Surovell’s Senate Bill 982 is the first time a Tysons casino statute will be considered by a full chamber. SB982 passed the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee 11-3, and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee 9-6. Marsden’s bill died in the Finance Committee a year ago.

SB982 wouldn’t authorize a casino development but would allow the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to conduct a countywide referendum to determine if voters want to allow a casino. The bill could go up for a Senate vote as early as this Friday, January 31.

During Tuesday’s vote in the Finance and Appropriations Committee, the Tysons casino bill garnered Sen. L. Louis Lucas’ (D-Portsmouth) support, the so-called “Casino Queen of Virginia.” The longtime lawmaker, who has served in Richmond for more than three decades, championed Virginia’s 2020 gaming bill that legalized casinos in certain cities.

Fairfax Casino Presents Unique Circumstances 

Unlike the approved casinos in Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Petersburg, and Portsmouth, the local government in Fairfax hasn’t sought to be designated by the legislature as a qualified host jurisdiction for gambling.

The Fairfax County Board has expressed opposition to casino gaming, as have many area homeowners’ associations, municipal governments, and citizens’ groups. Recent polling suggests about six in 10 Fairfax residents are against the gaming push. Several state lawmakers representing Fairfax and Tysons oppose SB982, too.

This is unlike any other jurisdiction that has received authority to hold a referendum to host a casino. Fairfax County did not seek this,” said Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Fairfax).

Boysko said the location for a casino “being rammed down the county’s throat” by Surovell and others backing SB982 can generate significant tax revenue without slots and table games. Boysko is joined by Sen. Saddam Salim (D-Fairfax) and Del. Irene Shin (D-Fairfax) in opposing the casino bill.

Surovell’s legislation specifies that a casino could only operate “within one-quarter of a mile of an existing station on the Metro Silver Line.” The property must also be “within two miles of a regional enclosed mall containing not less than 1.5 million square feet of gross building area and outside the Interstate 495 Beltway.”

The bill’s language would qualify a former auto dealership near Route 7 at Chain Bridge Rd. in Tysons owned by Comstock Companies. The regional real estate giant partnered with Marsden last year on the Northern Virginia casino bill and has since presented a $6 billion development featuring a casino possibly operated by Wynn Resorts.

Casino Money Could Ease Property Taxes

Surovell, along with SB982 cosponsors Sens. Sens. Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico), Stella Pekarsky (D-Fairfax), and Todd Pillion (R-Washington), say a casino could help Fairfax County cover a budget gap and stop raising property taxes on homeowners. The lawmakers say it’s time that gaming money stop fleeing Virginia to Maryland at the nearby MGM National Harbor, one of the highest-grossing casinos in the country.

The critics of the project have identified no alternative means to maintain our high-quality public schools while closing a $300 million recurring revenue gap in the Fairfax County budget other than to keep raising real estate taxes on Fairfax County’s homeowners, renters, and small businesses,” Surovell said.

“Virginia residents are already sending billions of dollars per decade to Maryland by patronizing MGM National Harbor just over the Maryland state line. It is time to bring that money back to benefit our state and Fairfax County while building a world-class performing arts venue, a convention center, and creating thousands of union jobs so everyone who works in the county can live in the county,” Surovell added.

Fairfax County is among the most affluent counties in the nation with a median household income of north of $150K. Fairfax is home to many Fortune 500 companies, including Capital One, Gannet, Hilton, and Mars.