Bristol officials plan to turn to legislators in their quest to collect a larger share of the gaming tax revenue from the Hard Rock Casino, after they failed to persuade neighboring Southwest Virginia localities to agree to take less money so Bristol could get more.
Because the casino is in Bristol, the city must provide services including police and fire protection and infrastructure like improved roads. City officials say they deserve a bigger cut and have proposed increasing Bristol’s share from 7% to as much as 50%.
City Manager Randy Eads, whose last day with the city was Wednesday, also said that the city is the only locality in Southwest Virginia that is in a negative net position of about $82 million, meaning its total liabilities exceed total assets, and it needs the additional money. Much of the city’s financial woes stem from trying to fix ongoing odor and other issues at its closed quarry landfill, he said. So far, the city has spent about $32 million on landfill-related projects, while future closing and compliance costs are expected to total an additional $79 million, he said.
Under the current revenue-sharing agreement approved by the General Assembly in 2020, Bristol and 13 other localities each get an equal share. The agreement was the wish of the Bristol casino’s founders, Clyde Stacy and the late Jim McGlothlin, who said from the beginning that they wanted all of Southwest Virginia to benefit.
Virginia currently has four operating casinos, and a temporary casino is expected to open later this month in Petersburg. Bristol’s is the only one with such an agreement. The other cities collect and keep all of the gaming tax revenue from their casinos.
The General Assembly also set up the Southwest Virginia Regional Improvement Commission, which oversees the gaming tax revenue from the Bristol casino. The commission is made up of representatives from the 12 counties and two cities that receive the money.
Currently, each locality gets a little more than 7%. The last disbursement to the localities was in August, when each collected more than $940,000. So far, there have been three annual payments since the casino opened in 2022.
Since November, the commission has discussed Bristol’s effort to increase its share during three meetings, including one on Wednesday. Eads earlier had presented several proposals for changing the funding formula, with one that would give the city 50%. The lowest, which would give the city about 27%, was the plan most discussed by commission members.
Under the plan for Bristol to get 50% of the gaming tax revenue, it would receive $8 million in 2026 and $10 million in the future, while the other localities would receive more than $615,000 this year and $769,000 in the future, according to the options provided by Eads.
If Bristol received 27% of the revenue, the city would collect $4.4 million this August and $5.5 million in the future, while the other localities would receive $888,942 this year and $1.1 million in the future, Eads told the commission earlier.
Several county officials said that money has become an important part of their budgets and it would be difficult to accept less.
Washington County Administrator Jason Berry said Wednesday that Bristol’s request is a “tough ask.” He said his county’s casino money has recently been used to buy body cameras for deputies at the county sheriff’s office and to give raises to school employees who aren’t teachers. Without that money, property taxes would have to be raised or cuts made to budgets, he added.
Matt Hankins, deputy administrator for Wythe County, said Wednesday that his county has poured all the casino money it has received into emergency management services, which are financially challenged and have a number of training requirements and calls that require a lot of time.
Localities can no longer depend on volunteers to provide those services, and Wythe is now paying those who answer EMS calls, he said.
“We wanted to have a countywide system that would be able to respond to calls without delay. This money has helped,” he said.
In December, commission members agreed to take Bristol’s proposal for 27% back to their governing bodies. Several local officials, including Russell County Administrator Lonzo Lester, said their boards wanted no part of it. After discussing the proposal with his board at its Jan. 5 meeting, Lester said he was going to tell Bristol to “go fly a kite.”
At Wednesday’s meeting at the county government center in Abingdon, the commission did not vote on the plan. Instead, Hankins made a motion to rescind a resolution approved earlier that the commission send a letter to legislators asking that the revenue-sharing agreement remain as it is. His motion was approved. Other members said that sending 13 separate letters from each locality would be more effective.
After the meeting, Eads said it’s “unfortunate that the regional improvement commission doesn’t want to work with the city of Bristol in this matter. The city has a net negative position of $82 million, and there’s not another jurisdiction in the … commission that has a net negative position so we’re in a different position than other localities.”
Eads added that city leaders are already reaching out to see if state legislators will work with them on getting the change through the General Assembly, though he noted that the lawmakers from Southwest Virginia “don’t seem to be too receptive.”
Tamrya Spradlin, who is now Bristol’s interim city manager, said she will “gauge the will” of the city council members. Vice Mayor Neal Osborne said Tuesday that he favors trying to get the General Assembly to help and believes the majority of council members feel the same way.
One of the legislators who does not support the change is Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell County, who represents the coalfields area. He said he was the first legislator to meet with McGlothlin about his casino plans, and he said the coal magnate and philanthropist was “adamant” that the revenue be shared by all the counties and cities in far Southwest Virginia.
McGlothlin and Stacy grew up in Buchanan County, where they made much of their money in coal mining. Some of that coal money was used to develop the casino, and the coalfield counties deserve their share, Morefield added. He said he has heard that many local leaders and other legislators share his opinion.
“I am firmly against making any change,” he said. “I believe the impact the casino revenue has had on these localities is tremendous. Many already anticipate that revenue in their budgets. I certainly want to follow Mr. McGlothlin’s wishes. … I heard directly from him where he stood on it so I just couldn’t support changing it.”
Wednesday was the opening day for the General Assembly’s 2026 session, and the other members of the Southwest Virginia legislative delegation couldn’t be reached for comment.
The casino project was announced in 2018, although casinos weren’t legal in Virginia at that time. It was approved in 2020 by the General Assembly and later that year by voters. A temporary casino, the state’s first, opened in July 2022, and the full Hard Rock Hotel and Casino opened in November 2024.