Posted on: August 14, 2023, 06:09h.
Final up to date on: August 14, 2023, 06:09h.
A nonprofit in Richmond, Va., goes to court docket in an effort to dam a brand new on line casino referendum, arguing that town illegally handed a no-bid contract to an out-of-state developer.
Lodge No. 1 of the Good Lions filed a movement late Friday with a Richmond metropolis court docket asking for the chance to argue its case in opposition to the referendum. The group, a department of Lions Membership Worldwide, runs biweekly charitable gaming occasions at a neighborhood bingo corridor and says that plans for a resort-style growth on town’s south facet would hurt these operations.
A listening to is scheduled for Tuesday morning on the movement.
Second Try at On line casino Vote
The court docket final month green-lit plans for a brand new on line casino vote this yr, an try by metropolis leaders to revive the deliberate half-billion greenback growth that voters narrowly rejected in 2021.
State regulation requires municipal poll measures just like the on line casino vote to obtain a decide’s blessing a minimum of 81 days previous to Election Day, a deadline that hits this Friday, August 18. However that ought to not stop the Lions from getting their day in court docket, argues State Sen. Chap Petersen, a Northern Virginia lawyer who has taken the nonprofit’s case.
The prior certification of the referendum, dated July 25, complies with the deadline requirement “no matter whether or not that Order is later suspended for any cause,” Petersen wrote in an Aug. 14 letter to Richmond Choose William Marchant. “Subsequently, the Court docket is free to contemplate our motions on the deserves, with out jeopardizing the timing of the referendum.”
Petersen informed On line casino.org that the Lions’ aim is to not bathroom down the litigation in court docket and that there’s ample time to resolve the case earlier than November.
The group argues that Richmond metropolis leaders violated state aggressive bidding legal guidelines by shifting ahead with the $562 million resort proposal regardless of vital modifications within the consortium growing the mission, RVA Leisure Holdings LLC, in comparison with when it was initially put ahead greater than two years in the past. The most important distinction is the doorway of Churchill Downs Included into the method alongside media firm City One, which was behind the unique proposal.
RVA was chosen following a proper course of forward of the 2021 vote, however there was no related weighing of competing bids this time round.
“We could not have favored the method, however a minimum of there was a course of,” Petersen mentioned in a short interview Monday.
Standing Query
The primary hurdle for the Good Lions is for the group to persuade the decide it has standing to intervene within the case, and to do this it’s pointing to the state’s earlier conclusion that casino-style playing will eat into charitable gaming.
“Its enterprise will likely be adversely affected by the institution of a on line casino, a truth acknowledged by the report on on line casino gaming by the Joint Legislative Audit and Evaluate Fee (“JLARC”), particularly on the website desired by RVA Leisure,” the group argued in its movement to intervene.
Now that the nonprofit has jumped into the fray, one other native on line casino opponent tells On line casino.org he’s stepping again.
Paul Goldman, a Richmond-based political strategist, had floated plans to sue earlier this yr, however he says the Good Lions seem to have a greater shot at successful the standing argument.
“He’s making pretty much as good a case as anyone could make,” Goldman mentioned of Petersen. “And if the court docket gained’t settle for Good Lions as an intervener, they wouldn’t settle for me.”
