As Virginia state lawmakers get ready to head back to work for their 2025 legislative session, one item they will discuss will be the possibility of building a casino in Fairfax County — likely in the Tysons area.
The topic has been raised before in the General Assembly, but it has never received enough support to move forward.
This time, it is being introduced by Sen. Scott Surovell, the Virginia Senate’s majority leader.
“It would generate hundreds of millions in tax revenue for both the Commonwealth and Fairfax County,” Surovell said.
Surovell has been interested in expanding casino gaming in Virginia since 2016, when MGM National Harbor Hotel & Casino opened in Oxon Hill, Maryland, which is not far from the Virginia border.
“It’s always really disturbed me that that thing was plopped right there to suck money out of our state that should be remaining in the state, helping to pay for schools and services,” Surovell said. “About one-third of it is being funded by Virginia residents going into Maryland.”
If approved, a bill Surovell has introduced this year would allow the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to hold a referendum on the project, which would move the issue to local voters for a yes-or-no vote.
“A lot of the opponents are basically saying that this bill authorizes a casino in the county — it doesn’t,” Surovell said. “All the bill does is authorize a process by which the voters could eventually approve one.”
The project wouldn’t only call for a casino.
It would be a massive entertainment complex featuring a hotel, concert venue and convention center.
One of the main arguments raised by critics has been that it would increase traffic gridlock in the Tysons area, which is already congested.
In response to that, Surovell said the project would need to be located within a quarter-mile of Metro’s Silver Line.
“Part of the reason the state chose to invest billions of dollars in extending the Silver Line out this way was to put exactly this kind of density and this kind of activity at this location,” Surovell said. “The whole point of Metro is to try and get people to these locations without using cars.”
Virginia state lawmakers were supposed to begin their 2025 session Wednesday, but that was postponed until early next week due to citywide water disruptions in Richmond caused by the recent winter weather.
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