Article Text
A proposal to clear the way for a casino and entertainment complex in Tysons stalled Wednesday when a House Appropriations subcommittee postponed its decision amid concerns about gambling oversight, community support and the objectivity of research presented to lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell’s Senate Bill 982 would add Fairfax County to the Virginia localities eligible to develop a casino. Supporters say the project could generate jobs and additional revenue for both the county and the commonwealth.
The measure passed the Senate 24-16 but remains before the House subcommittee.
“We’re going to keep talking about it,” Surovell, D-Fairfax, said after the vote.
House leaders moved the legislation between committees before Wednesday’s hearing. Such transfers are common, but the change came one day after Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, had been expected to consider the measure in the gaming subcommittee he chairs.
Krizek said at a public event in Alexandria over the weekend that he opposed the casino proposal. During Wednesday’s hearing, he said it “hurts” not to support the legislation given Surovell’s focus on Northern Virginia’s economy.
However, Krizek argued that Virginia first needs stronger rules for its expanding gambling industry.
“I think we need to get a strong regulatory framework set up to oversee Virginia’s gaming industry, which is growing,” he said.
Krizek hopes to use a budget amendment to create the Virginia Gaming Commission, an independent agency that would oversee every form of legal gambling in the state except the Virginia Lottery.
He called the proposed commission “essential to streamline the oversight and enforcement of all gaming activities in Virginia,” adding that lawmakers need to establish it first.
At the subcommittee’s final meeting of the session, supporters pointed to potential employment, job security and government revenue. Opponents countered that the proposal lacked community backing and would permit development at only two eligible locations in Tysons.
The legislation has also faced scrutiny over records indicating a financial relationship between proposed casino developer Comstock Holding Companies and George Mason University. Questions emerged after university professor Terry Clower changed his position on the project.
Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at the Schar School of Public Policy, described an earlier casino measure sponsored by Sen. David Marsden, D-Fairfax, in 2023 as a “measure of economic development desperation.”
After records showed that Comstock had offered to pay the university to study casino development, Clower endorsed the legislation during a Fairfax County NAACP public forum in January.
“I think it’s the best option going forward,” Clower said Jan. 7.
Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, opposed the bill at Wednesday’s hearing and raised the issue in a letter to George Mason President Gregory Washington. She expressed concern that Clower had not disclosed the financial relationship between the proposed developer and the Schar School.
“The disclosure of this financial relationship, and more importantly, the communications discussing the use of the developer’s data to produce the report has raised significant concerns about the objectivity of the analysis provided to lawmakers,” Boysko wrote.
She said residents expect transparency and objectivity from a taxpayer-funded university and argued that the financial relationship revealed through a recent Freedom of Information Act request had prompted questions regardless of anyone’s position on Senate Bill 982.