Fairfax County Board chairman pushes back on casino proposal

A bill that would allow a Las Vegas-style casino in Fairfax County has made it further than ever before, clearing the legislature and potentially making it to the governor in a few days.

But it could be dead on arrival in Fairfax.

“The way it’s written right now is a nonstarter,” said Fairfax County Board Chairman Jeff McKay.

The bill passed the General Assembly, but has been sent to conference, which means three senators and three delegates will meet privately to finalize the details. At this point, anything could change before going to the governor.

News4 asked McKay if he would ask Gov. Abigail Spanberger to veto the bill.

“If it comes out the way it is right now, yes,” he said.

McKay’s has two main problems with the casino bill. Number one: right now the state would take a majority of the tax revenue a casino earned — About 30% to the county, 70% to the commonwealth.

“Anything short of at least a 50/50 mix isn’t even worth looking at,” McKay said.

The county commissioned a study that estimates about $62 million in annual new local revenue.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, who is backing the bill, is expecting a lot more than that.

“Fairfax needs a different economic development strategy,” Surovell said. “They need to attract other businesses, other industries. Commercial office isn’t doing it anymore.”

Commercial real estate has long been the county’s bread and butter, but the cupboard was left bare following COVID and DOGE cuts. The Fairfax County Executive says revenue is rebounding and believes the long term outlook is strong.

“I think the second thing that needs to be proven is that there’s some groundswell of support for this, and what I’ve seen, to date, is the exact opposite — that there’s not any support for this. In fact, there’s a lot of opposition to this in Fairfax County,” McKay said.

From Fairfax to Richmond, casino opponents have been showing up year-in and year-out.

The question remains if they’ll ultimately get to vote on the issue. Right now, the bill requires voter approval. But McKay says unless this deal starts looking a lot better for Fairfax, he doesn’t think there’s enough support on the board to even put it on a ballot.