On a wintry Wednesday, a handful of bettors gathered in line awaiting the 10 a.m. opening of the Interim Gaming Hall, Norfolk’s large temporary tented casino containing 132 slot machines.
Nearby, behind a construction fence, cranes broke the morning silence with the occasional bam, bam, bam — driving in 6,500 piles for the foundation of the permanent $750 million resort casino and hotel scheduled to open next to the Norfolk Tides ballpark in the last quarter of 2027.
To Ron Bailey, general manager of the Norfolk casino and a Boyd Gaming vice president, that hammering is the sweetest melody. “That banging sound to get these concrete piles in,” he says, “it’s like music to my ears every single day.”
