Three resort casino proposals advance to next phase of selection process

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The City of Richmond today narrowed the field of proposed bidders for a resort casino development to three finalists. The three finalists selected by the City’s Evaluation Panel are:  Bally’s Richmond Casino Resort, Live! Casino & Hotel Richmond, and One Casino + Resort. 

Six proposals were originally submitted and reviewed by the Evaluation Panel, which considered, among other factors, each proposal’s site control, feasibility of financial projections, organizational experience, community impact/benefits, location, potential city revenues, and economic development impact. 

The top ranked proposals stood out because the operators provided strong proposals with detailed financial and operational analyses to support their vision for a resort casino in Richmond. The Evaluation Panel will enter into the next phase of evaluation and begin negotiations with these operators; while continuing to engage the Richmond community. 
Proposals not advancing to the next round of consideration are: Golden Nugget, Wind Creek Hospitality, and Pamunkey Indian Tribe & Reservation. These proposals did not advance due to factors such as lack of site control, concerns about the feasibility of financial projections, lack of organizational experience and/or deficiency of the proposal. 

The city is hosting three virtual meetings next week for each of the top three ranked operators to discuss their proposed projects and for citizens to ask questions directly to representatives from the companies. The meetings will be held via MS teams, and the public is encouraged to attend and participate. The meetings can be accessed via the links below, or via telephone at 804-316-9457, phone conference ID: 934 627 185#. The meetings will be recorded and posted on the Resort Casino website.

In addition, each of the three top ranked operators have provided videos of their proposals, which are now available on the Department of Economic Development’s YouTube channel and will later be available on the city’s Resort Casino webpage.

Proposal videos:

Citizens can watch the proposal videos and provide their thoughts and feedback on each proposed project using the interactive board also found on the Resort Casino webpage. Citizens are encouraged to respond to the following questions: 
• What do you think are strengths of this proposal?
• What do you think are weaknesses of this proposal?
• What do you think makes this a good location for a resort casino?
• What do you think makes this a bad location for a resort casino?
• What can be done to make this location favorable for a resort casino?
English version:
Spanish version:

The city is asking community members to provide comments on the shortlisted proposals via the Resort Casino webpage by April 6, 2021. On April 8 and 9, the Evaluation Panel will host meetings to report on the feedback received in the preceding 6 weeks. After those meetings, the Evaluation Panel will continue negotiations with the shortlisted operators with the goal of recommending a preferred operator and site to City Council in mid/late May. If the preferred operator and site is selected by City Council, then the Council will petition the Courts to include a referendum on the November 2, 2021 ballot for all City of Richmond voters, that will read “Shall casino gaming be permitted at a casino gaming establishment in [name of city and location] as may be approved by the Virginia Lottery Board?”

The virtual community engagement and more information about the Resort Casino RFQ/P process can be found at www.rva.gov/economic-development/resort-casino

Live! Casino and Hotel Richmond - Tuesday, March 30th at 6:00 pm
Phone: 804-316-9457
Phone Conference ID: 934 627 185#

One Casino + Resort - Wednesday, March 31st, at 6:00 pm
Phone: 804-316-9457
Phone Conference ID: 934 627 185#

Bally’s Richmond Casino Resort - Thursday, April 1st, at 6:00 pm
Phone: 804-316-9457
Phone Conference ID: 934 627 185#
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