RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — After a months-long evaluation of casino development projects, officials in Richmond announced Thursday that a panel is recommending the Urban One project.
News outlets report that Mayor Levar Stoney will introduce plans to the City Council on Monday to partner with Urban One to build a casino in south Richmond. Voters will decide whether to permit the project in a referendum on Nov. 2, pending City Council approval. City officials don’t plan to provide public funding or incentives for the project.
The project will create more than 1,000 jobs, Stoney said in a news release. Urban One predicts the casino project will generate $525 million in new tax revenue and other benefits for the city over the next decade.
Urban One would become the first Black-majority owner of a casino since the late Don Barden, the first African American casino operator in Las Vegas.
The city solicited the development proposals under a new state law allowing Richmond, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville and Bristol to permit casinos if their respective voters approve it in a public referendum. Richmond received six development proposals and eliminated three within weeks.
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