A casino a threat to our national security? No, we are NOT talking about the Tesla cybertruck explosion at Trump International on the Las Vegas Strip. Why? First off, Trump LV is not a casino. Secondly, the latest spin is that it was all an accident. (We guess that the driver ‘accidentally’ shot himself in the head, too.) Enough of that. No, the pressing safety concern involves a Virginia hamlet of which you’ve probably never heard: the heretofore obscure Tysons Corner.
This Washington, D.C. exurb has become the flashpoint for the latest big casino debate. The Virginia Lege, in its infinite wisdom, is yet again moving the goalposts on how many casinos will be permitted. Solons can’t seem to decide, nor to resist the tax lucre they see a new casino bringing. The proposal before the Lege is to authorize a referendum, whereby the good burghers of Northern Virginia can vote on whether they want to host a casino or not.
So far so good. There’s certainly nothing wrong with letting the citizenry control the fate of the proposed casino. Richmond said no (twice), Petersburg said yes. That’s how these things go. The mooted casino has proven (unsurprisingly) controversial, with opinion pretty heavily divided. Labor wants it, the NIMBY brigade definitely does not. And so forth. One can’t entirely blame the NIMBYs, if only because the Lege said the Cavalier State would have a finite number of casinos … but keeps changing its mind. Another casino here, a couple of slot parlors there and pretty soon you’re a more verdant, classier Nevada (or at least a second Pennsylvania).
Churchill Downs has played the political process like a harp, juicing itself into thousands of Virginia slots, as well as a preponderant position in the state’s fledgling casino industry. Others have debuted impressively of late—not least Hard Rock International, in Bristol—but it’s Churchill Downs’ oyster still. Try as politicians might to manipulate the process, the gaming industry has usually been one step ahead of them. And if they bungle the Tysons Corner debate, it could boil over into a nationwide cause celebre.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) hasn’t taken a position on Tysons Corner but he is nonetheless in receipt of a letter from 109 national-security heavyweights (including 57 former CIA spooks) decrying the prospect of another casino on Washington’s doorstep. They call it “an unacceptable health and national security hazard, whose socioeconomic costs significantly outweigh any short-term increase in revenue.” They fear, among other things, that a Tysons Corner casino or one in nearby Reston would lure intelligence officers into disordered gambling, imperiling their security clearances (and possibly making them prey to blackmailers). Human trafficking and money laundering have also been raised as potential red flags.
Why is there a big stink about this particular casino when there wasn’t one about MGM National Harbor? Location, location, location. The intelligence boffins warn that Tysons Corner is “within walking or easy driving distance for tens of thousands of federal employees, civilian defense and intelligence contractors, and U.S. military personnel.” The intelligence community’s beef isn’t with Youngkin but with state Sen. Louise “Casino Queen” Lucas (D). Yes, she gave herself that nickname, perhaps because she never saw a gambling hall she didn’t like. While the referendum proposal got stiff-armed in the last session, Lucas is all but certain to bring it back from that near-death experience.
What’s so important about Fairfax County? Well, it’s wealthy and relatively untapped for gamblers. It’s also a strategic locale. As currently drafted, the casino would be en route to Dulles Airport, a quarter-mile off the Silver Line commuter railway and near the I-495 Beltway (abandon all hope, ye who drive there). Legislators see dollar signs. So does Comstock Holding Cos., the unlikely frontrunner for the casino. Just because you’re a real estate ace doesn’t mean you understand casinos, which hasn’t deterred Comstock. It may be a stalking horse for a true gaming heavyweight and we’re only surprised that one hasn’t emerged yet.
At least one high-ranking solon is sympathetic to the intelligence community’s worries. Said state Sen. Barbara Favola (D), “national security experts have unique insights into the correlation of gambling addictions, the cultivation of cybersecurity hackers and other negative associations, and how a community could become a risk to those entrusted to protect the security of our nation and our allies.” Colleague Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D) made the trenchant point that her Fairfax County constituents have not asked for the referendum that may be foisted upon them. She’s against the casino, by the way.
According to proponent and state Sen. Dave Marsden (D), the security worries are overblown. Besides, the casino will be in a billion-dollar-generating “entertainment district.” How that makes national security moot escapes us but if there’s anything that overrides love of country among the Marsdens of this world it’s the lust for the Almighty Dollar. Far be it from us to dispute the wisdom of 109 experts who include ex-CIA case officers Valerie Plame and Lisa Suzanne Harper. And we’re listening when they cite a governmental report that balefully warns that “financial pressures from gambling debts played a significant role in motivating at least seven Americans to sell classified U.S. government information to the Soviet Union.”
We’re not saying the casino shouldn’t be built. But a great deal more thought, study and caution should go into the legislative process. Those plump Fairfax County tax dollars may look good now, but getting them via a casino raises some mighty serious issues. Marsden and “Casino Queen” Lucas need to stand back and consider whether a northern Virginia casino is really such a pressing need.
Mind you, Plame, Harper and their fellows need to refine their arguments. Suggesting strongly that we’d be safer if we emulated the despots of Russia, China and Turkey by getting rid of or isolating casinos is an (unwitting) plea for totalitarianism. In a film version of Franz Kafka‘s The Trial, Joseph K (Anthony Perkins) is warned by his attorney that “To be in chains is sometimes safer than to be free.” We think otherwise.
When not crumbling into the Chicago River, the fetus of Bally’s Chicago is rattling its tin cup for financing. The latest gambit (although not a new one, as we shall see) is to offer minority and female investors a 25% stake in the $1.7 billion megaresort … for the rock-bottom price of $250 million. That’s $425 million of equity for $250 million. One can buy in for as little as $250. Can’t beat that for a steal of a deal. Maybe if the prospective investors hold out, Bally’s will go still lower. It takes some brass to sell percentages in a casino you no longer own, as Gaming & Leisure Properties is now bankrolling the project. Max Bialystock would be proud of Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim.
However, contrary to some published reports, this is not a new idea. The minority set-aside was critical to being juiced into a casino concession by then-mayor Lori Lightfoot (D). The linchpin of the deal involved Bally’s crossing Lightfoot’s palm with 40 million pieces of silver, but the minority-investment clause didn’t hurt either. The remaining question is whether investors want to board this RMS Titanic, iceberg dead ahead. Bally’s Casino downtown is underperforming (rather badly, we would say) which bodes ill for the September 2026 debut of its giant offspring. There’s little demonstrable market for an urban casino in the Windy City and the female/minority community might be better advised to pitch their pennies elsewhere.
Now that the train from Wash DC to Dulles Airport is complete, the Tyson’s Corner location would be an excellent location. Yes, the I-495 Beltway is a traffic mess, but so is I-95 near MGM’s National Harbor.