A law firm based in Virginia Beach has asked the Virginia Lottery Board to dismiss an application for a casino license in Norfolk.
Troutman Pepper, a law firm and lobbying group that has long represented the interests of The Cordish Companies in Virginia, sent the state lottery commission, which regulates casino gambling in the commonwealth, a letter in September requesting that Norfolk’s casino plan be rejected.
On September 10, the Norfolk City Council approved a resolution that amended the city’s Preferred Casino Gaming Operator agreement with the Pamunkey Indian Tribe to include Golden Eagle Consulting II, LLC (GEC). The 7-1 vote in favor of the resolution allowed Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming to become the controlling stakeholder of Golden Eagle, a position it purchased for an unknown sum from billionaire Jon Yarbrough, and become part of the city’s preferred gaming operator.
Boyd’s introduction, John Lynch, an attorney and partner at Troutman Pepper says, violates state law and he is therefore asking state lottery officials to reject the casino application.
Before Norfolk voters approved a local referendum during the November 2020 election authorizing a $500 million commercial casino resort along the Elizabeth River next to the Harbor Park Minor League Baseball stadium, the Pamunkey Tribe “engaged GEC as the Tribe’s exclusive developer for the project,” the city’s Development Agreement executed in January 2020 with the tribe read.
Lottery Plea
Lynch wrote his letter to the Virginia Lottery Board just two days after the Norfolk City Council voted to allow Boyd to assume Yarbrough’s 80% position in Golden Eagle and become a designated operator of the forthcoming casino and resort. Lynch believes Norfolk officials are rushing to expedite construction of its long-stalled casino that voters authorized almost four years ago.
“The Virginia casino gaming law requires that the City submit its preferred operator to the Virginia Lottery ‘prior to scheduling the Referendum.’ Immediately after the Referendum, the City is required to ‘certify its preferred casino gaming operator.’ Four years ago, the City undertook each of these steps by selecting and certifying the Pamunkey Indian Tribe as its preferred operator,” Lynch wrote.
The City’s change to a new preferred gaming operator is not mere semantics. The proposed new operator is different in both name and substance from the operator selected and certified by the City in 2020,” Lynch continued.
Lynch in his letter claims that GEC was never designated as part of the Preferred Casino Gaming Operator terms and was only mentioned as a developer or financier.
Lynch also takes issue with the proposed site of the casino resort.
“The new proposed casino site includes the City of Norfolk’s sale of land on the north of Harbor Park stadium and makes the new casino gaming structure part of the stadium. Neither of these proposals are consistent with the prior Referendum that stated the casino gaming location would be ‘on property east of Harbor Park stadium,” Lynch added.
Boyd and the Pamunkey Tribe plan to break ground on the casino on Oct. 30. The project has been cleared by city officials, pending the gaining of building permits.
The Virginia Lottery Board can only review facility operator license applications from a qualified city’s “preferred casino gaming.”
The only qualified casino cities in Virginia are currently Norfolk (Pamunkey-GEC), Portsmouth (Rivers), Danville (Caesars), and Bristol (Hard Rock). Petersburg voters will decide next month if they become the fifth casino location in Virginia through a local referendum. Petersburgh’s preferred gaming operator is an entity consisting of Cordish and Bruce Smith Enterprises.
Troutman Pepper’s Interests
Cordish developed the nearby Waterside District just steps from where the casino is to be built. Since Norfolk sought to bring a casino to town, Cordish, represented by Troutman Pepper, has argued it should have been designated as its preferred gaming operator.
Cordish and Troutman Pepper filed a lawsuit against the City of Norfolk on allegations that its 2013 Development Agreement with the city to redevelop the waterfront complex into a bustling hospitality and nightlife destination, a venture that Cordish spent $40 million on, included a provision designating Cordish as the city’s gaming partner should commercial casinos come to the commonwealth and/or Norfolk. The Virginia Court of Appeals dismissed the Cordish complaint in March.
The Norfolk Accountability Project is an LLC registered with Smith as its registered agent. The LLC’s address is the same as Troutman Pepper’s Virginia Beach address.
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