On Tuesday (5 November) voters in Petersburg, Virginia gave their blessing to the Cordish Companies to build a brick-and-mortar casino in their town.
The opportunity for Petersburg residents to be heard exists because Richmond residents twice voted against building a casino.
With all precincts reporting Tuesday night, the proposal was approved 81.5%-18.5%. A total of 10,265 votes were cast in favour as opposed to 2,325 against, according to the secretary of state’s office. The Cordish Companies have plans and are licensed to build a Live! Casino in the city.
In 2020, state lawmakers made digital sports betting legal. At the same time, they named five locations in the state that could build physical casinos. But each location required local approval before a licence could be issued. So far, casinos in Bristol (Hard Rock), Danville (Caesars) and Portsmouth (Rivers) have opened. Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey tribe late last week broke ground on a $750 million casino in Norfolk, which is scheduled to open in late 2027.
Richmond was the fifth city approved. But voters in 2021 there rejected the referendum. Then two years later, 61% of voters again said no. After the second defeat, lawmakers in Petersburg, a small central Virginia town, decided they wanted in on the action.
State lawmakers approved Petersburg as a potential site and the city council then awarded a licence to Cordish in a no-bid process.
Path to Petersburg casino bumpy
The path to a Petersburg casino has been anything but smooth. After the first rejection in Richmond, Petersburg lawmakers started angling to be the fifth casino location. But state lawmakers wanted to give Richmond voters another chance, meaning Petersburg had to wait. In April, the Virginia legislature amended the gambling bill to add Petersburg to the list.
Since then, one union sued the city because the bid process was not transparent and the initiative was later challenged. Petersburg lawmakers initially launched a request for a proposal to find a casino operator. Bally’s, the Cordish Companies, Penn Entertainment, Rush Street and the Warrenton Group in partnership with Delaware North submitted bids.
Each company presented its bid at a 14 April town-hall meeting. Ten days later, the city council met behind closed doors and subsequently announced a no-bid process, awarding the contract to Cordish. The company had previously bid on the Richmond casino, but wasn’t selected.
In July, the Petersburg city council and the Virginia Lottery approved the request for a referendum, landing the issue on the ballot.
Cordish is planning a $597 million casino, hotel and entertainment complex on 92 acres of land in south Petersburg. The property will be built in two phases.
