Petersburg voters won’t get an opportunity to approve a casino this fall, but Richmond residents appear likely to get a second chance to vote on a casino referendum in 2023, state legislators decided Thursday in a 10-6 vote.
The Virginia State Senate’s Finance and Appropriations Committee killed a House of Delegates bill Thursday that would have placed a referendum on Petersburg ballots in November and prevented a second referendum for Richmond, where voters defeated a casino referendum in 2021. Without a law stopping Richmond from holding another referendum, one is likely to appear on city ballots this year.
In 2022, state lawmakers blocked a second referendum in Richmond and ordered a study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) that indicated that both Richmond and Petersburg could successfully host casinos.
