In both Bristol and Danville, visible progress continues at permanent casino resort construction sites, adjacent to temporary casino facilities that already have their doors open.
These cities are the homes of Virginia’s only two temporary casinos, and they’re both anticipating the opening of permanent casino resorts in 2024. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol is slated to open next summer, and the Caesars Virginia in Danville will be open by the end of the year.
The Danville Casino is seeing about 100,000 visitors per month, said Chris Albrecht, Caesars Virginia general manager.
“It’s been really steady since opening,” he said. “We certainly saw a big rush early on, but it’s stayed pretty consistent.”
These visitors are coming from all over, but most of them, especially during weekdays, are regional and local, Albrecht said. But once the permanent resort is open, with its 320-room hotel, he said he expects visitors to come from farther away.
Eleven out of 12 floors of the hotel tower have now been built at the Caesars Virginia construction site, and everything is still on schedule for a later 2024 opening, Albrecht said.
“We’ll have 30 rooms per floor for 10 floors and then 20 rooms on the top floor,” he said. “There will be some suite products on the top floor of the casino, and you’ll have some fantastic views of Danville with floor-to-ceiling windows.”
When completed, it will be the tallest hotel in Danville and offer more rooms than any other lodging option.
The casino floor in the resort will be about 90,000 square feet, over twice the size of the current 40,000-square-foot temporary facility, with about 1,400 slot machines and table games.
The $650 million project will also offer 40,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, an entertainment venue that will be able to host 2,500 people, and restaurants and bars.
The temporary Danville facility has about 430 employees, Albrecht said, and over twice that many will be needed for the permanent resort.
“We’re really going to get rolling on recruiting and hiring [for the permanent resort] in the new year,” he said. “We’re going to be starting hiring events and going to the colleges and universities nearby to do job fairs and speak to the students there.”
Many of the existing employees at the temporary facility, including card dealers, were recruited from the local population, and Caesars is hoping to hire more locals for the permanent casino.
There were some learning curves in training staff in the early days of the temporary casino, Albrecht said, because Caesars brought an entirely new industry to the Danville area.
“Now, we have team members in those jobs, earning really good pay, and they’re able to share that. … As we have recruited and needed more staffing, word of mouth has helped us,” he said. “We have people who can give testimonials of the jobs they’re doing, whereas before, no one had ever had these kinds of jobs here.”
Where the money is going
The temporary casinos in Bristol and Danville together brought in over half of the gaming revenue from the state’s casinos in 2023, according to data from the Virginia Lottery through November. December figures will be released mid-January.
Hard Rock Bristol, which opened in July 2022, saw about $145 million in gaming revenue in 2023, operating every month of the year. The Danville Casino, operated by Caesars Entertainment, only opened in May 2023 but has seen about $126 million in revenue since then.
Virginia’s third casino, a permanent resort in Portsmouth called Rivers Casino that opened in January 2023, brought in almost $225 million this year.
These three casinos together saw $493 million in revenue in 2023.
Another almost $30 million was generated between the three casinos this year by the state tax on adjusted gaming revenue. This money is divided up for several different uses, but a portion of it — about 6% — goes to the host locality or region of the casino.
The Bristol Casino’s portion of the tax revenue — almost $8.4 million in 2023 — will be disbursed to the Regional Improvement Commission, a body created by the General Assembly to determine the best use for the funds.
The commission will split the revenue between 12 counties and two cities in Southwest Virginia. It’s expected to be put toward education, public safety and transportation.
Danville will not share the tax revenue from its casino with any other localities. The city received about $7.5 million in gaming tax revenue this year from the Danville Casino.
The city of Danville also receives direct payments as part of an agreement with Caesars Virginia.
“We get 2.5% of the first 200 million [in revenue] and then 6% of the next 200 million, and it goes up from there,” said City Manager Ken Larking.
The city anticipated about $13.1 million coming from both the gaming tax and the direct payments this year, Larking said.
“Looking at the November numbers, about $8 million in revenue will be collected through the first five months of the fiscal year,” he said. “So, we will likely receive more than budgeted for the year.”
And November reversed three months of declines in Danville Casino revenue, coming to $17.5 million. The facility’s highest month of revenue was July, with almost $21.5 million.
Larking said that casino revenue can fluctuate based on a number of factors, including the type of play and size of payouts that occur. The city’s tax revenue is based on gross gaming revenue, which is what the casino makes on gambling, he said.
“It would be wise for us to expect these fluctuations and seasonal impacts,” Larking said. “For budget planning purposes, we should be conservative and get more trend information.”
This tax revenue from the casino revenue will be used according to recommendations made by the Investing in Danville Committee, Larking said, which was established before the city passed a casino referendum in November 2021.
The committee compiled feedback from Danville residents to “prioritize areas that the public thought were important,” he said.
These include initiatives such as housing, public safety, education and economic development.
Some of these funds have already been used for projects around the city, and the influx of money from the casino has allowed Danville to complete projects faster than expected.
For example, the police department was moved out of the basement of City Hall this year and into a new building. It’s a much larger space with more robust resources, Larking said, mentioning amenities like a community room, which is important for the department’s community engagement efforts.
“It’s a much better program now than it was many years ago,” he said. “I’m fairly certain we would not have been able to move our police department into a new headquarters if it weren’t for the casino revenue that came in initially as an upfront payment and ongoing revenue that we’re receiving.”
And the renovation of the city’s White Mill, a former Dan River Mills building that sat empty for decades, will likely be expedited because of the casino revenue stream, Larking said.
Both of these projects, and others in the works, will help improve quality of life in Danville, he said.
“The citizens decided that they wanted to allow a casino to operate in our community, and I believe it’s my responsibility as city manager that we do the best to maximize the resources that have become available because of that decision, and use them for the benefit of our community,” Larking said.
Most residents are excited about the casino and the effect it will have on Danville, but to any skeptics, Larking recommended focusing on the reason the city was chosen for a casino resort.
“That is to transform the economy,” he said. “[Danville] was selected because of its high poverty. It was selected because of its lack of economic opportunity for large parts of our community. And so we should be using these funds to make Danville a great place to live.”
Still, he said it’s smart to have conservative expectations about casino revenue.
“We’ve only had a few months of experience of the casino … so we don’t really know what the impact is going to be,” Larking said. “We need to make smart decisions about how we use these funds.”
One of the guiding principles of the Investing in Danville Committee is to use the casino funds for “one-time” investments as much as possible.
“We won’t be using casino funds to provide core city services,” Larking said, listing things like the police department, parks and recreation, and street maintenance.
Progress in Bristol
The most visible sign that the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol is finally going to open is the behemoth building taking shape that will be a six-floor hotel at the old Bristol Mall property off Gate City Highway.
These days, the site is teeming with construction workers, bulldozers and other heavy equipment, machinery and vehicles that are constantly going in and out of the property. Construction of the 303-room structure remains on schedule and a summer 2024 opening is still planned, according to casino spokesperson Andy Poarch.
Work also continues on the building behind the hotel that will house the casino, though its progress isn’t as noticeable.
“Our team is proud of all the progress we’ve made in 2023, and we look forward to continuing that momentum into 2024,” said Allie Evangelista, president of the casino complex. “For our guests who visit the property, they can witness the visible signs of our construction activity, which is wonderful for the entire community.”
The new year promises to be a big one for the casino, which has been more than five years in the making. It was late summer 2018 when plans were announced to transform the former mall property into a casino resort.
In November 2019, Hard Rock International was announced as the future operator of the Bristol casino.
At the time, casinos weren’t legal in Virginia, but the General Assembly in 2020 approved legislation that gave five “economically distressed” localities, including Bristol, permission to move forward with casino projects, if approved by voters. In November 2020, the city’s voters approved the casino by the widest margin of victory of the four approved in the state.
A temporary casino opened in Bristol in July 2022, becoming the first casino to operate in Virginia.
Originally, the price of the casino project was estimated to be $250 million. By the time the groundbreaking for the permanent casino and hotel was held in December 2022, that number had grown to about $400 million, and the latest price tag tops out at $520 million.
The hotel will feature a spa and indoor/outdoor pool. The casino will have more than 1,500 slot machines, 75 table games and the Hard Rock Sportsbook.
The casino complex will have several restaurant choices, including a Council Oak Steakhouse, Hard Rock Café, YouYu Noodle Bar and a large food hall.
A “state-of-the-art” Hard Rock Live Venue will have 2,000 seats, and shopping choices will be a Rock Shop and United Venue and the Player’s Club.
Bristol Mayor Neal Osborne said the city has been pleased with the progress on construction of the casino project.
“The construction has moved rapidly, the residents of our entire region have shown their support by going and enjoying all the casino has to offer, and the city has seen the benefit in increased lodging taxes and meals taxes,” Osborne said in an email.
“In addition to that, Bristol and all our surrounding localities in Southwest Virginia have reaped the benefits of the gaming taxes through the Regional Improvement Commission structure. I’m excited for 2024 and the official opening of the full Hard Rock experience. I’m excited to see what they do for our community!”
When the temporary casino opened, casino officials said there were about 600 employees and that number was expected to double when the casino project was completed. The total number is now expected to be about 1,300, according to Poarch.
Hiring events have been held and hiring will continue in the coming months of 2024, Evangelista said.
“Our team has much to be thankful for this holiday season, and I want to extend a special note of gratitude to them, our guests and our many local partners in Bristol and across the Tri-Cities and Southwest Virginia,” she added.
Evangelista said 2023 “has given us a taste of exciting things to come for next year. Having reached over $650,000 in local charitable contributions, 100,000 in Unity member registrations, $150 million in jackpot payouts and nearly $40 million in gaming taxes, we look forward to building on all of those significant milestones in 2024.”
But 2023 wasn’t all good for the casino. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued a notice of violation against HR Bristol LLC, saying it did site work on the property without getting the necessary permits and approvals.
The problems were discovered during a May site visit, the DEQ said. Among other issues, the DEQ said HR Bristol did not have a stormwater pollution prevention plan. Both sides signed a consent order to resolve the violations.
HR Bristol had to pay a civil penalty of $27,160.
Evangelista issued a statement about the violations:
“Meeting all of the project’s statutory and regulatory requirements and commitments is a priority, and we spend considerable time and resources in this important effort. We regret that site work exceeded the scope of that allowed without issuance of all required VA Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) permits. We have been working closely with the City and DEQ to address the matter. We want to thank both parties for their cooperation and ongoing assistance. We look forward to fully resolving this matter in a timely manner as we continue progress towards a 2024 opening of the permanent facility.”
Also in 2023, the Virginia Lottery, which oversees casino gaming in the state, said the casino violated provisions of the Casino Gaming Law and the lottery’s related regulations.
“Specifically, the lottery identified alleged violations with respect to voluntarily excluded persons,” according to a settlement agreement between the lottery and the casino. Virginians who have gambling issues participate in a self-exclusion program and may not enter a casino or any regulated gaming facility in the state, according to the lottery.
As part of the agreement, the casino paid $50,000. The settlement agreement, signed May 30 by lottery officials, states that Hard Rock cooperated with the inquiry, corrected the issues and developed a plan to ensure future compliance.
The agreement resolved the alleged violations and avoided the expense and inconvenience of a formal hearing, according to the agreement.
Evangelista earlier released a statement about the agreement that said in part:
“Our company is recognized as a respected national leader in promoting responsible gaming. These longstanding efforts include working closely with numerous state and national organizations, including in Virginia, that provide resources and support to individuals suffering from problem gambling. This settlement resulted from incidents, involving guests over age 21, that we self-reported to the Virginia Lottery, as soon as we became aware of them. We will continue to ensure that our team members follow our company’s industry-leading best practices to comply with all regulatory requirements.”
The casinos, by the numbers
From Jan. 1 through Nov. 30, the temporary casino in Bristol posted $145.56 million in adjusted gross revenue, which is wagers minus winnings, according to the monthly casino activity report issued by the Virginia Lottery.
From May 15, when the Danville Casino opened, through Nov. 30, it generated nearly $125.4 million in adjusted gross revenues. It has also generated nearly $7.5 million in tax revenue for the city.
For the casino in Bristol, the month with the highest AGR was April, with a total of $14.04 million in adjusted growth revenue. The slowest month was November, with $12.09 million. October was the next slowest month, with $12.68 million, and then September, with $12.71 million.
For the Danville casino, the month with the highest AGR was July, with a total of $21.4 million in adjusted growth revenue. The slowest month was May, when the casino was only open for two weeks and generated nearly $12 million. The next slowest month was October with $16.8 million, followed by November with $17.5 million.
Each month, the Bristol casino has the lowest AGR numbers of the three operating casinos in Virginia.
In November, Rivers Casino Portsmouth posted $21.59 million in AGR, while Caesars Virginia in Danville reported $17.5 million and the temporary casino in Bristol reported $12 million.