Casinopocalypse 2025: Bill Killed Until Next Year, Providing Respite for Compulsive Gamblers, Tysons Used Car Lots

Sad news for compulsive gamblers, national security threats, and Crystal Koons: The General Assembly bill that would have allowed a fun floating 97 story casino to be built on a used car lot in Tysons, but definitely not Reston, is dead—at least for now. Give us some good legislative blockquote, BFF Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter Alcorn:

Senate Bill 675 authorizing a casino in Tysons is dead for this year and carried over to 2025, after a vote by the Senate Resource Subcommittee. I'm very happy that the subcommittee members listened to the community and the people elected to represent them. It is a big victory for everyone who cares about good government!

While this is a victory for those in Reston and elsewhere in Fairfax County who expressed opposition to the casino, it's definitely coming back. Give us some good I'll-be-back blockquote, BFFs at Reston FFX Now:

The postponement came despite apparent support for the proposal by Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-18), who chairs the Senate Finance & Appropriations resources subcommittee and quipped that she’s been called “the casino queen” during the meeting. 

 

Sen. Dave Marsden (D-35), who patroned the bill that would make Fairfax County — specifically Tysons — eligible for a casino, previously told FFXnow that he was hopeful it would pass, noting that Lucas, who also chairs the overall finance committee, “likes [the] bill.”

 Marsden says he’s “disappointed” by the outcome, noting that the vote still keeps the bill alive until 2025. “No one has any other ideas to give Fairfax County a brighter revenue future,” he told FFXnow.

The year delay gives the developer(s) behind the casino a year to replenish their own war chests and build support for the proposal. Given the more than $630,000 they've already sunk into supporting lawmakers who support the bill, this might be just the beginning, the end.