You’re probably already aware that Richmond residents voted down the Urban One Casino proposed for South Richmond in a 2021 referendum. Richmond city council and Mayor Levar Stoney didn’t like that answer and tried to ram through another casino referendum this year despite the will of the voters.

However, State Senator Joe Morrissey successfully blocked the 2nd referendum by pushing through a state budget amendment delaying a 2nd referendum in Richmond until 2023 in order to give Petersburg time to assess the feasibility of locating the casino there instead. The courts were starting to weigh in about whether that delay was permissible or not. Acknowledging what was set to be a protracted legal battle, the CEO of Urban One finally relented yesterday stating that the 2nd referendum in Richmond would not be held in 2022, but rather it would be delayed to 2023.

So here’s a question, why is it that the politicians are fighting over a casino when the public has already said no? Well, you already know the answer to that question-campaign contributions and back door deals. And regardless of whether it’s in deep South Richmond or Petersburg, a casino in either location surrounded by incredibly concentrated poverty is all but guaranteed to prey on the poor and instigate further problems. All you have to do is travel to a comparably sized city that already has a similar casino and see firsthand the surrounding issues. And with the recent violence happening in deep South Richmond (or Petersburg for that matter), either location is sure to be a highly combustible mix of gasoline and fire.

But that will all but certainly fall on deaf ears. There’s simply too much money to be made by the politicians on a casino. So the chicanery will continue. And that’s too bad, because Richmond has real problems that need real solutions, right now. A casino in deep South Richmond certainly isn’t a solution to those problems. And Richmond needs another problem like a potentially defunct or troubled casino added to its problem list like it needs a hole in the head.