Legislation that would give Fairfax County the authority to ask voters to allow a casino is heading to the Virginia House of Delegates.
After a passionate debate that split Fairfax County’s typically unified delegation, the contentious bill from Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34) to add the county to the short list of localities eligible to host a casino passed the state Senate today (Tuesday) by a 24-16 vote.
If it passes the House and gets signed into law by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Senate Bill 982 would give Fairfax County Board of Supervisors the option to hold a referendum asking voters to approve a casino gaming facility.
Surovell and other casino proponents, including Sen. Dave Marsden (D-36), who introduced similar legislation in the 2024 General Assembly session that stalled in committee, have argued that it will bring in critical revenue for both the state and Fairfax County, which is facing a $292.7 million budget deficit in part due to a declining commercial real estate tax base.
“I think this bill is one of the most significant economic development bills you’re going to see this session,” Surovell said. “There’s something in it for everybody.”
A 2019 gaming study conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) projected that a Northern Virginia casino could generate an additional $155 million in statewide gaming tax revenue, though it didn’t specifically analyze Fairfax County.
Surovell’s bill limits the potential Fairfax County casino to Tysons by requiring the site to be outside I-495, within a quarter mile of Metro’s Silver Line and within two miles of an indoor mall that’s at least 1.5 million square feet in size.
The casino must also be part of a mixed-use development “consisting of no less than 1.5 million square feet.” Though it hasn’t submitted any official plans to Fairfax County yet, Reston Station developer Comstock Companies has proposed building a casino as part of an entertainment district near the Spring Hill Metro station that would also feature apartments, a hotel, a 6,000-seat concert venue, a convention center, retail and an IMAX movie theater.
A number of labor unions have spoken in support of the project after reportedly securing a commitment from Comstock for a labor-peace agreement that would guarantee employment of union workers.
However, the possibility of a casino in Fairfax County has inspired objections from an unusually broad range of constituents. Pastors with the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition sent letters to legislators warning that a casino will have “severe negative impacts” on the local community, while defense and intelligence workers have argued gambling could pose national security risks.
Surovell questioned why the national security concerns didn’t crop up when Virginia legalized sports gambling on phones or when MGM National Harbor Hotel & Casino opened in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just on the other side of the Potomac River.
“If our national security community is so vulnerable to this, we’re already screwed,” Surovell said. “…It’s NIMBYism dressed up in a different set of clothes.”
When Surovell suggested that the opposition to a casino is being fueled by MGM, Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-38) called the assertion “ludicrous.”
Highlighting the “years” that local officials spent planning for the Silver Line “to be the most productive and economically viable usage that creates a space that people want,” Boysko was joined in voting against the bill by Sens. Barbara Favola, Saddam Azlan Salim and Adam Ebbin.
The senators all stressed that the authority for a casino referendum wasn’t requested by Fairfax County residents or the Board of Supervisors.
“I would not be standing up and opposing this if there were an open process, if they had buy-in from the local community, if this were not micro-targeted for one or two locations,” said Boysko, who represents Reston, Herndon, Great Falls and McLean. “… Every other time that we have voted to allow a casino, it has been with the support of people that represent that area, it has been with the support of the people who live in that community.”
Favola, who represents Arlington County, said her office had stopped counting the number of emails they received opposing a casino after they hit 5,000, while Boysko pointed to 106 community and homeowners’ associations that have objected, including ones organized under the No Fairfax Casino Coalition and the Tysons Stakeholder Alliance.
In a statement after the vote, Salim, who represents the 37th Senate District that includes Tysons, said his office has gotten approximately 1,300 emails and calls about the casino issue in the past two weeks, nearly all of them opposed.
“This is not a vocal minority; it is a clear majority expressing concern,” he said. “I urge the House to reject this bill so we can focus on legislative priorities that truly serve our constituents.”
On the Senate floor, Salim noted that Tysons isn’t experiencing the same economic conditions that led cities like Portsmouth, Norfolk, Danville, Richmond, Bristol and Petersburg to pursue a casino. Richmond was dropped from the eligibility list last year after voters rejected a referendum twice.
The Board of Supervisors has expressed skepticism of a casino, arguing in a recent letter that the county’s funding challenges stem more from insufficient funding for schools from the state and that Tysons isn’t in need of revitalization.
But only two members — Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn and Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman — have explicitly opposed Surovell’s bill, Sen. Stella Pekarksy (D-36) observed. Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik, whose district includes the site where Comstock hopes to build, has said she’s monitoring the legislation but hasn’t taken a firm position on it.
Representing southwestern Fairfax County, including Chantilly, Centreville and Clifton, Pekarsky said many of her constituents say high property taxes and other costs are driving them out of the county. In addition to getting voter approval via a referendum, any development would still need to go through the county’s usual land use process.
Surovell’s bill, then, just “allows us to continue the conversation” at the local level, rather than in the state legislature, she contended.
“This has the potential to bring major economic development and much-needed diversification of revenue in Fairfax County, as well as 5,000 well-paying jobs,” Pekarsky said. “My constituents deserve the ability to have a robust discussion at the local level, where many of the issues brought up on this floor can be fleshed out.”
Bierman, however, argued in a statement shared this afternoon that there has already been “robust discussion at the local level” that’s being ignored by the legislators pushing the bill.
A poll conducted in January by the Tysons Stakeholder Alliance, a group formed by the Rotonda Condominiums and other Tysons residents, workers and community members, found that 64% of “likely voters” surveyed in Fairfax County and 79% of 336 Tysons respondents oppose a casino.
“Fairfax County residents don’t want this casino in the first place, and we don’t need a wasteful, costly, divisive referendum to figure that out,” Bierman said, calling the Senate’s passage of the bill “a low moment for Richmond” and urging the House of Delegates to reject it.
