The powerful House Committee on Appropriations has taken up the discussion of legislation allowing a vote on a Tysons Casino.
Speaker Don Scott (D-88) directed House Committee on Local Government members yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), to forward the bill without action to the chamber’s Appropriations Committee.
At that meeting there was no public testimony on the casino legislation, but Del. Holly Seibold, who represents Vienna and Tysons in D-12, was able to voice her opinion.
She said, “The constituents of my district… did not ask for this casino nor do they want one.”
The Appropriations Committee meets every Wednesday and Friday. According to the committee’s website, today’s meeting has been cancelled.
The bill was sponsored by Senate Majority Scott Surovell, (D-34) and passed the Senate in a vote of 24-16 on February 4, 2019. The bill, if passed into law would allow casino gaming in Virginia to be expanded to Fairfax County.
The bill allows, but does not mandate, that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors hold a referendum. The proposal would only move forward if the measure was passed by voters.
Comstock Companies aims to place the casino on a parcel along Leesburg Pike (Route 7) that it controls as part of a larger entertainment-focused development envisioned for the site.
Surovell’s bill does not specify which parcel would be used for a casino, nor who the operator would be. The bill gives general guidelines on population and geography that limit the location largely to Tysons, along Metro’s Silver Line.
Surovell pointed out that the vacant parking lot at Tysons Galleria, owned by Lerner Enterprises, would also meet the criteria when his bill was presented to the Senate last week. The parcel of land at 8025 Galleria Drive , formerly known as Lerner Town Square , has been approved to be developed, but it has been primarily used in recent years for Circuses, and other Special Events.
Tysons will replace Richmond in the state’s law, where voters rejected two casino referendums. Virginia’s capital was removed last year from the list eligible localities after the second refusal in the general election of 2023.
A similar bill last year sponsored by Sen. Dave Marsden’s (D-35), was deferred in the General Assembly session of 2024 and later killed.
