The City of Richmond, Virginia’s mayor’s office has announced three finalists in the bid for a resort casino development.
The office named Bally’s Richmond Casino Resort, Live! Casino & Hotel Richmond and One Casino + Resort as chosen by the City’s Evaluation Panel, citing their “powerful proposals” and “thorough financial and operational analyses”.
The City Council’s Evaluation Panel will now begin negotiations with the finalists, with a target of recommending an approved operator and site to Council in mid-to-late May. If this recommended operator is selected by City Council, residents will vote on its proposal in a referendum. If approved in that vote, the casino may be built.
The top three operators were chosen from six proposals. The office also named the three not chosen as Golden Nugget, Wind Creek Hospitality and Pamunkey Indian Tribe & Reservation.
George Papanier, president and chief executive officer of Bally’s Corporation – which agreed terms on a $2.74bn deal to acquire UK-based online operator Gamesys yesterday – said the operator’s proposal would be a great benefit to Richmond.
“We are excited and honored to have been selected as a finalist and have the continued opportunity to partner with the City of Richmond, its residents and businesses on this campaign,” he said.
“We are confident that our proposal will provide incomparable economic benefits to the greater Richmond community, and we look forward to continuing our dialogue to prove to the City and its various stakeholders that Bally’s is for RVA.”
Next week, Richmond will host three respective virtual meetings for each of the operators to discuss the projects and answer questions from the public.
The finalists have also provided video proposals available on the Department of Economic Development’s YouTube channel.