Tysons Casino Supporters, Detractors Turn Out At ViVa! Vienna

VIENNA, VA — Fairfax County residents may have been surprised to see two booths at last weekend's ViVa! Vienna Festival operated by groups opposing and supporting the casino that Reston developer Comstock Holding Companies wants to build in Tysons.

Tracy McCarty, who was answering questions and handing out "No Casino" bumper stickers at the No Casino Coalition booth, told Patch that many of the people she talked to were surprised there was still a casino effort going on.

"Senator Marsden has publicly stated multiple times that he plans to bring forward casino legislation for Tysons in Northern Virginia again in January," McCarty said.

At the start of the 2024 Virginia General Assembly session in January, Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke) introduced Senate Bill 675, which, if enacted, would have given the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors the authority to put a casino referendum on a future ballot.

Facing backlash from some Northern Virginia residents and activist groups, the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations voted on Feb. 6 to hold over the bill to the next legislative session. The committee also requested that the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission study the impact that building the proposed casino would have on Tysons, as well as Vienna and McLean.

"JLARC did a study in 2019 about the Northern Virginia Casino that was not location specific or operator specific," said Ben Tribbett, who was manning the Virginia Players Alliance's booth nearby.

Tribbett is a former professional card player and owner of Pocket Aces Consulting, which specializes in helping Democratic campaigns with their messaging. He formed VPA in 2021 to advocate for charitable gaming and oppose skill games, which the general assembly banned in 2020.

VPA also supports the proposed Tysons casino, which was why Tribbett was in Vienna over the weekend.

"This isn't going to be like what they put in Portsmouth or in Bristol that are more of a neighborhood casino type of establishment," he said, when asked about the proposed casino. "This is designed to be a resort. It's going to have a convention center with it. It's designed to attract tourism to Fairfax County, but also bring in a lot of the upscale amenities that I think Fairfax County residents would demand from a casino operated in Tysons Corner."

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Read all of Patch's reporting on Comstock Companies' plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

Earlier in the month, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a bill that would've set up a regulatory committee to oversee the electronic games that convenience stores and gas stations used for decades prior to the 2020 ban, according to Cardinal News.

Virginia legislators outlawed skill games because they were seen in 2020 as a threat to the profitability to several planned casinos across the state, according to Cardinal News.

Tribbett sees skill games as more harmful to the community than the "resort-style casino" that's being planned for Tysons.

"[Skill games] are a lot more accessible to people that shouldn't be playing them," he said. "Casinos bring the security for keeping young people out of them. They bring resources for problem gamblers. There's a lot more odds for players in a casino. The average 7-Eleven or a restaurant might pay back twice as badly as a casino slot machine would for a player."

Over at the No Casino Coalition booth, McCarthy continued to answer questions, and asked people to sign up for the group's email list and visit the coalition's new Facebook group for the latest updates. Most of the people she had had spoken to on Sunday said they opposed the idea of building a casino in Tysons.

"A lot of people mentioned traffic and that this is a family-friendly area," she said. "They don't find the casino to be very family-friendly."