One Casino + Resort was pitched by Urban One, a Black-focused media conglomerate with no experience building or operating a casino. It was selected by the Richmond government to be the city’s preferred casino developer. The plan beat out proposals from highly experienced gaming operators, such as Bally’s, Golden Nugget, and The Cordish Companies.<\/p>\n
Urban One’s selection raised some eyebrows. And the company’s ballot campaign, at least in hindsight, was ineffective.<\/p>\n
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Urban One focused on being a minority-owned company and possibly becoming the first Black-owned commercial casino operator in the United States. It did so as much as it did on presenting the economic benefits that the destination would provide the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The November 2021 casino referendum vote was largely split among demographic lines. More affluent neighborhoods voted against the project, while poorer parts of town — including the Southside, where One Casino was to be built along I-95 — voted in the affirmative. The vote narrowly went against the casino, 51% to 49%.<\/p>\n
Morrissey convinced his State Capitol colleagues that the state should consider allowing Petersburg, which is just south of Richmond, to host Richmond’s casino. The senator persuaded state lawmakers to include the budget provision blocking Richmond from reasking its residents about a casino for a year. Thata’s in order to allow the state to study the merits of relocating the gaming license to Petersburg through additional legislation.<\/p>\n
Casino Developer Folds<\/b><\/h2>\n
With state law trumping city ordinances, Richmond officials this week conceded that their planned 2022 casino referendum would encounter legal challenges should voters opt to support the project. As a result, the city is foregoing the 2022 gaming question.<\/p>\n
Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins said the budget language “has created a conflict \u2026 and a huge cloud of doubt” over the merits of holding a 2022 referendum. The city subsequently announced its withdrawal of the casino question for 2022.<\/p>\n
“The City of Richmond, at the request of our longstanding community partner, Urban One, is preparing to file a petition to remove the casino referendum from the November 2022 ballot. Understanding Urban One’s reasoning, the city stands ready to move the proposed One Casino + Resort forward in 2023,” a city statement explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Richmond casino referendum that city officials sought for the November 2022 ballot is being delayed by a year. Richmond was one of five cities the state qualified through 2020 legislation to consider a casino project. Each city is required to ask their local voters to see if they wish to allow a casino project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":225072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,61],"tags":[82130,81995],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Richmond Casino Referendum Dropped, Developers Cite State Concerns<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n