Update: This article has been updated to include figures around crimes reported at the casino, provided by the Danville Police Department.
It’s been half a year since Caesars Virginia opened its doors in Danville, becoming one of the first casino resorts in the state. The grand opening on Dec. 17 took the city from having a temporary casino to having a full-scale resort — and everything that comes along with it.
Running the resort is a whole different ballgame than operating the semi-permanent tent that housed the temporary casino, said Caesars Virginia General Manager Chris Albrecht.
“It’s a much larger operation,” Albrecht said. “[The temporary facility] was a very focused gaming experience. Now you’re dealing with the complexity of hotel guests, higher-end restaurants and concerts.”
The permanent casino has about 1,200 employees, whereas the temporary casino had 400. It brings in around $30 million in revenue monthly, compared to about $20 million at the temporary facility. It has six dining options instead of one.
The resort brings about 175,000 monthly visitors to the area, almost double the number who came to the temporary casino.
It also offers a concert and event space, 320 hotel rooms, a spa and a much larger gaming floor.
With all these differences, Caesars does plan to keep some things the same, Albrecht said. The permanent casino still uses local vendors like the temporary facility did, and it still partners with local businesses and organizations.
Growth in revenues from gaming, meals and lodging taxes
For the city, the most obvious impact of the casino resort’s presence has been the gaming tax revenue, said City Manager Ken Larking.
Danville’s fiscal year begins July 1, meaning that FY 2024-25 had gaming tax revenue coming from the temporary casino for the first half of the year and from the permanent resort for the second half.
The city budgeted for $25 million to come in from the casino this year, which Larking said was an intentionally conservative estimate.
“It’s looking like it’ll be closer to $30 million or $31 million,” he said. “Council is considering adopting a budget amendment to appropriate additional funds.”
That number includes both gaming tax revenue and the local supplement that Caesars agreed to pay the city as part of its development contract. The minimum local supplement that Caesars must pay Danville every year is $5 million.
Since the permanent casino opened in December, Caesars’ revenues have increased by at least $10 million per month, according to reports from the Virginia Lottery, which tracks casino activity.
From July to November 2024, the first half of Danville’s fiscal year, Caesars saw between about $18 million and $20 million in revenue monthly. Just over $1 million per month in casino funding was going to the city during this time.
From December to April, with the permanent casino up and running, Caesars brought in between $28 million and $35 million monthly, according to the Virginia Lottery. Between $1.7 million and $2.1 million went to the city monthly.
June casino revenues will not be posted until mid-July.
For the coming fiscal year, Larking’s budget estimates $35 million in casino money, which he says is conservative yet again.
“You never want to count on X amount of dollars and then find out you didn’t get it,” he said.
Some casino revenue has already been appropriated to energy efficiency programs with the goal of lowering utility bills for Danville residents.
Recommendations from the Investing in Danville Committee, which was created before the temporary casino opened, are guiding the city on how to spend casino funds. They will include investments in education, public safety, housing and economic development.
The city wants to be transparent about where this money is going, Larking said. A new page on the city’s website describes investments made and planned for casino funding.
The ultimate goal is to use casino funds to create new economic opportunities in the city that will lead to sustainable, long-term revenues, Larking said, rather than relying on Caesars’ funding for all city initiatives.
He doesn’t want to see a repeat of what happened when Dan River Mills, the city’s main industry, closed in 2006, he said.
“If you’re solely dependent upon one large economic driver to support the economy of the community, and if something would happen to that, it really could have a devastating impact,” Larking said. “Danville knows that story. That’s top of mind.”
Still, casino revenue will help the city meet its long-term goals faster.
“Even before the casino, Danville was doing really innovative things to invest in itself and become a better place to live,” Larking said. “But the casino allows us to do more quicker. We are doing so much more, so much quicker now that we have the capacity to actually carry it out.”
Now that this revenue stream exists, the city is working to expand its workforce to support it, Larking said.
“When you add, say $40 million more in revenue, and you try to do $40 million more in projects, you can’t do it with the same people,” he said. “That’s a challenge we’re working on.”
The city has also seen an increase in meals tax and lodging tax revenue since the casino opened.
Danville’s lodging tax rate is 8% of the total amount paid for a hotel or motel room, plus $3 per day of room occupancy. The meals tax rate is 6.5%.
Even before the full resort was finished, the temporary casino had an impact on these tax revenues, said Michael Adkins, Danville’s director of finance.
Figures for May are not yet available, but from December 2024 to April 2025 — or since the permanent casino has been open — the city collected about $5.5 million in meals tax revenue.
During the same five-month time period the year before, when there was only a temporary casino, Danville brought in $5.2 million in meals tax.
From December 2022 to April 2023, when there was neither a temporary or a permanent casino presence, Danville collected $4.7 million in meals tax revenue.
Lodging tax revenue between December and April this year came to about $1.4 million. About $108,000 of that can be attributed to an additional $1 charge in the per night tax, Adkins said.
For the same time period the year before, the city collected about $1.2 million in lodging tax revenue, and for the year before that, about $1 million.
Guests coming from greater distances
With a hotel now part of the casino, guests are coming from farther away, Albrecht said.
The temporary casino brought in about 100,000 monthly visitors, with most coming from within a 45-minute driving distance.
“The radius of guests has greatly expanded,” Albrecht said. “We’re seeing the greatest growth in guests coming from 200 to 300 miles away, which makes a lot of sense, just because people can stay here multiple days now with the hotel and additional amenities.”
Caesars developed partnerships with local hotels before the permanent resort was built, and continues those relationships even though its hotel is now open.
“When we have very big volumes, we still need to use our hotel partners, mainly the Bee and the Holbrook, which we were using when we were in the temporary facility,” Albrecht said.
The Bee Hotel and the Holbrook Hotel, sister properties with 93 rooms between them, are redeveloped historic buildings in Danville that have been transformed into boutique hotels.
Partnerships with local vendors
Caesars is also using local vendors for products, services and construction.
One of the casino’s dining options, Three Stacks, sells baked goods from local bakery Ma’s Cakes. Three Stacks, the only dining option in the temporary facility, also sold Ma’s Cakes in the tent while the full resort was under construction.
The casino has hired a local florist, KatieDid Florals, to create centerpieces and displays for several events.
Owner Katie Wright Thomas said that Caesars helped her business through the process to become an approved casino vendor with the Virginia Lottery.
“They guided us through that beautifully and it was seamless,” she said. “Our experience with them has been fantastic and we hope to continue working with them.”
Caesars also plans to partner with Havana Phil’s Cigar Company, a high-end cigar shop that opened in Danville this spring, Albrecht said. The company is based in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Danville storefront on Main Street is its second location.
“We’re very excited to be working with them on products to offer within our building, but also VIP events in the future,” Albrecht said. “Having a VIP dinner, maybe with a little bourbon, a nice cigar. Those are the kind of partnerships that we’re excited to continue to grow.”
Larking said that Caesars has made good on its promise to be a community partner.
“When we were considering an operator, Caesars was the right choice for a lot of reasons,” Larking said. “One of the things we liked was that they were very community-focused. On top of what they’re required to give the city through tax revenue and the supplemental payment, they give to local nonprofits, they encourage their employees to volunteer and serve on various boards.”
No significant increase in crime
There has been no significant increase in crime citywide since the casino’s opening, said Assistant Police Chief Henry Richardson.
The police department has received more incident reports at the permanent casino than at the temporary casino, but Richardson said that was expected, since “it’s a much bigger operation now.”
Since the grand opening on Dec. 17, there have been 73 incidents reported at the casino across all businesses, restaurants and parking facilities, according to data provided by Richardson.
Disorderly conduct offenses are the most common incidents, with 27 reports. After that was larceny, with 13 incidents reported. There have been two incidents reported involving possession of drugs and three incidents reported involving weapons in the six months since the casino has been open.
Richardson said many incidents at the casino have been “crimes of opportunity.”
“If someone leaves a card unattended, leaves a purse in the women’s room, things like that,” he said. “But we’ve had no major incidents over there, no violence or anything like that, even with the thousands of people going there.”
There are fewer reports now than in the months when the casino first opened, he said.
“Now, their security is fledged up full, we know where we’re at with cameras and technology,” Richardson said. “They are great partners. … There’s been a lot more people in Danville, a lot more traffic, with minimal impact on crime.”
What’s next?
In the next six months, employees will continue to “get their legs under them,” Albrecht said.
Most of the casino’s 1,200 employees are local, though it has begun outreach to other nearby cities like Greensboro to recruit new hires, he said.
“We are now running a team-member shuttle to and from Greensboro, because we understand that in the long-run, we’re going to need to tap into the overall region for our workforce,” Albrecht said.
The casino is still looking to hire and train table games dealers, as well as seasonal and on-call positions to staff the hotel pool and the entertainment venue.
“We’re going back to the ways we found talent when we opened the tent, going back to that playbook and expanding it,” he said.
Also in the second half of the year, Caesars will make more use of its entertainment venue, called the Pantheon. The casino held its inaugural concert, country music artist Gary Allan, on June 7.
“We had one [concert] in the first six months but another 20 to come in the next six months,” he said. “We want to keep expanding that to make this a true destination resort.”
With the Pantheon up and running, Caesars Virginia has now brought all of its planned amenities online.
“We’ll see where there may be expansion opportunities in the future, but for now in this first year, we’re really just leveraging this amazing asset we have,” Albrecht said. “We’re getting people comfortable with our restaurants, using the entertainment venue and enhancing the experience for guests as this team gets more comfortable.”