Virginia State Rep Pre-Files a Bill to Enact the Casino Bill Provision

Barry Knight, Virginia Representative, has filed a bill that may permit the enacting of casino bill provisions that was ed in 2019. This was done just in time for the 2020 legislative session.

House Bill 4 text is quite the same as the one in the original bill, SB1126. The latter was signed into law by state Governor, Ralph Northam, in March of this year. The t Legislative Audit was required in order for this bill to be ed, as well as a study by Review Commission that would study best practices and potential impact of gambling on communities.

How it Will Transpire

Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology will soon have the report sent to them…

…while House Committee on General Laws will also be reviewing it on December 1st. The state regulator, Virginia Lottery Board, will have six months – from January 1st to June 30th 2020 – to develop the vertical regulations.

The next legislative session will review the question of casino gambling – and this is what the new bill seeks out to do.

But before the casinos are actually allowed, a public referendum will be held to decide this matter. This could happen with November 2020 ballot if HB4 is made into law.

The said piece of legislation would allow Virginia cities to permit the construction of casinos that will have to fulfill a strict selection of criteria and conditions. In the bill, casino gaming is defined very broadly: it may be sports betting and online gambling and a lot of verticals in between.

What Cities Are Eligible For Casinos?

Casino gambling will be permitted only in cities that successfully the conditions test, that is meet one of four criteria. The ideal city has to have 40% (minimum) of all real estate excluded from local property taxation. Also, the city to get a casino should have at least a 7% population decline between 1990 and 2016.

Furthermore, cities with unemployment rate of 5% in 2018 (minimum) and a poverty rate of at least 20% in 2017, as well as population decline of 20% are also candidates.

Fitting the description are cities that had unemployment rate of 3.6% in 2018, a poverty rate of 20% and a population decline of at least 4%.

Cities whose population is 200,000 or more, have at least 24% of real estate excluded from property taxation and no casino gambling by Native American tribes will also be able to allow casino gambling.

Any casino project should have a capital investment of at least $200 million, and that may include land, facilities, infrastructure, equipment etc.

Source:

“Virginia Representative files bill to enact 2019 casino legislation”, igbnorthamerica.com, November 22, 2019.