“The evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together. … You can’t get rid of one without getting rid of the others.” — the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
In 2022, as new casinos came online, there was a 57% increase of reported calls to the Virginia Gambling Helpline. Callers reported casino slot machines and casino games as primary causes. Seventy-eight percent reported gambling away their housing funds, savings and taking on excessive credit card debt.
This Tuesday, Richmond votes on a casino — a business that profits by turning community members’ dollars into pennies and crippling debt. Despite the divisive narratives, the difference between yes-voters and no-voters is not melanin, or even means. It is a difference of model.
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According to projections from a consultant hired by the city in 2021, the proposed casino would require $72 million of gambling losses per year — from Richmonders, specifically — to generate the promised $30 million in tax revenues. This is a predatory model of robbing Peter to pay Paul. And it is a net loss.
A drone image shows the proposed location for a casino, building in the center and behind, in South Side Richmond.
A study by National Gambling Impact Study Commission found 80% of casino revenues come from households earning less than $50,000 per year. Do we believe we can heal South Side by luring the economically disadvantaged with the false hope of a jackpot?
A majority already voted no on this referendum, and here is why we will do so again next week:
Net loss economics
A 2011 Baylor University study calculated each problem gambler generates an annual cost of $9,393. Considering that some experts predict between 5% and 10% of Virginians may be at risk for problem gambling, and you multiply 7.5% of Richmonders who may be at risk for problem gambling (17,204 total citizens), the municipal cost would be $161,597,172 annually. If you include surrounding counties (1,341,227 citizens), it balloons to $944,860,656. These dizzying, bleak numbers — approaching an annual cost to the Greater Richmond region of $1 billion — may explain why the casino owners are hiding their financials.
Unjust revenue generation
In 2016, The Atlantic cited nine independent studies that showed 30% to 60% of casino revenue comes from problem gamblers at casinos. Casinos are designed to prey on addiction, economic instability and those in need of mental health services.
A study from the University of Massachusetts found people who identify as Black were four times more likely to experience gambling harms. Those with depression, and those served alcohol while gambling, were at increased risk. Individuals with high school diplomas were three times more likely to experience harm than those with college degrees.
Within two years of a casino opening in Plainville, Massachusetts, researchers found a 50% reduction in citizens who perceived the casino as beneficial.
Unhealthy outcomes
Recently, the American Psychiatric Association listed gambling addiction as a substance abuse. Historically, crack, heroin and other substances were used to disrupt Black communities, weaken Black families and sabotage long-term economic uplift. Gambling now sits alongside them.
The FBI reports suicidal ideation in at least 12% of problem gamblers, and at least 4% have histories of one or more attempts. Nearly half of Gamblers Anonymous (GA) participants have contemplated the act. A national study found that 2.6% of the U.S. population may be addicted to gambling.
Undermines democracy
As Del. Dawn Adams, D-Richmond, said recently, these referendums were not designed for casino-funded politicians to run them until their desired result. We must remember the historical destruction of Jackson Ward was opposed by two referendums that Richmond leadership refused to acknowledge. Legal doesn’t mean just.
Unnecessary for investing in South Side
Richmond City Council received $154 million in federal funds to address issues such as access to child care. These funds can be spent until December 2026, but so far only 1% has been allocated to child care and, of that 1%, there’s been no sign of it in South Side. Why is this?
Recently approved state legislation requiring Airbnb rentals to pay hotel taxes can also be used to fund child care and the education trust fund in perpetuity.
The city could also allocate incoming revenues from previously uncollected real estate taxes from the historic tax abatement program — which are expected to generate more than $20 million over the next five years — to pay for child care and investment in South Side.
In October 2021, a sign in Richmond urged voters to reject the casino project. Voters wound up rejecting the casino by roughly 1,500 votes in the first referendum.
If you want to find jobs and opportunities for South Side, we would start with the $700 million worth of city contracts the mayor and City Council award that still go to 95% white-owned businesses.
If Urban One wants to bring a sound stage, hotel, park, gardens and jobs to South Side, it doesn’t need a casino. The law doesn’t require us to vote for resorts or gardens.
The notion that this casino is the only or best solution for South Side is false. Richmond and South Side don’t need a Grand Casino. We need a grand commitment to a just and equitable revenue allocation process. Richmond can develop South Side by invoking Maggie Walker’s empowering model of deposits, instead of this casino’s exploitative model of withdrawals. It’s time to upgrade South Side from the blackjack table to the bargaining table. We don’t need vices to do what’s virtuous for South Richmond, but we do need new values.
PHOTOS: Recognize these Richmond-area places?
In October 1951, workers constructed a section of Forest Hill Avenue in South Richmond. The segment sits between Westover Hills Boulevard and Prince Arthur Road.
In December 1990, a Richmond Ballet dancer stretched before rehearsal of “The Nutcracker.”
In February 1953, Richmond Department of Utilities workers used a 65-foot hook-and-ladder firetruck to install new lights on Broad Street after attempts to secure other ladder equipment from private companies had failed.
In May 1954, Scoop sniffed around the pet food aisle at a grocery store in Richmond’s West End. The store offered a large selection of pet foods, a relatively new concept for the era. The accompanying article said: “Gone, apparently, are the days that Fido took the scraps from the table and liked them.”
In September 1942, members of Richmond Hotels Inc. donated typewriters to the War Production Board and the Office of War Information in response to an appeal for businesses to let the government have any machines they could spare.
In August 1981, children enjoyed outdoor recreation at Camp Happyland in the Richardsville area of Culpeper County, not far from Fredericksburg. The Salvation Army started the camp in the late 1950s to improve children’s health through exercise and proper nutrition.
In March 1971, a crowd estimated at several hundred waited outside City Council chambers at City Hall in downtown Richmond. Residents of the recently annexed Broad Rock area were protesting the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s proposal for low-rent public housing in the area.
In March 1969, a sign went up to mark the site of Henrico County’s first permanent designated library, on Laburnum Avenue near New Market Road. On hand were (from left) Varina District Supervisor Edwin Ragsdale, library board trustee Mrs. F.M. Vaughan, library assistant Virginia Liles and county libraries director David Rowland. The library opened in December 1970.
In June 1969, a Trappist monk at the Holy Cross Abbey near Berryville in Clarke County began his daily meditation. The monks spent their days balancing quiet prayer, spiritual reading and manual labor.
In June 1956, the Rev. Lawrence V. Bradley Jr. of Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond and his secretary, Jean Bolton, got out the summertime heat beater: a simple cardboard fan. The pews were liberally stocked during the warm months because the church had no air conditioning.
In July 1959, the normally bustling downtown Richmond business district, including this stretch along Eighth and Main streets, was much quieter as motorists stayed home because of triple-digit heat.
In April 1966, Union Bag-Camp Paper Corp. officials oversaw manufacturing at a new plant in Chesterfield County. The facility produced millions of bags for supermarket chains and other clients on the East Coast. At the time, about 265 employees worked in two local company plants; the old factory at 13th and Canal streets in Richmond was open for limited operation until it was sold.
In March 1969, a sign went up to mark the site of Henrico County’s first permanent designated library, on Laburnum Avenue near New Market Road. The branch opened in December 1970. Posing with the sign were (from left) Varina District Supervisor Edwin Ragsdale, library board trustee Mrs. F.M. Vaughan, library assistant Virginia Liles and county libraries director David Rowland.
In August 1982, David Tidwell of Croaker posed with his girlfriend’s dog, Blazing Amber of Cinder, at the humorous “Norge Dog Station” at Norge Grocery on U.S. Route 60 west of Williamsburg. The sign had been put up seven years earlier, and the spot became a popular photo opportunity for visitors.
In March 1987, in preparation for new carpeting, the Dumbarton branch library in Henrico County had to remove about 80,000 books from shelves. About 50 people handled the first phase overnight — but restocking the shelves awaited.
This 1957 photo shows Collegiate School in the 1600 block of Monument Avenue in Richmond. The Town School elementary building was on the left and the high school on the right. In 1960, the Town School and the Country Day School merged, operating on the campus off River and Mooreland roads in Henrico County. It remains the location today.
In November 1970, a Richmond officer rode his horse by the police bureau’s new stables, which were under construction. The facility near Brook Road and Chamberlayne Avenue included eight stalls, a scrub area, a horseshoeing area and a tack room. The bureau had been looking for an established home for its horses since the mid-1960s, when the Virginia National Guard moved from the Richmond Howitzers downtown armory, where the horses had been stabled for two decades.
In March 1971, a crowd estimated at several hundred waited outside City Council chambers at City Hall in downtown Richmond. Residents of the recently annexed Broad Rock area were protesting the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s proposal for low-rent public housing in the area.
In November 1948, Army Lt. Charles D. Smith Jr. administered the oath to the first set of postwar draftees processed at the Richmond induction station at First and Broad streets. Several of the men were immediately sent to Camp Pickett in Blackstone.
In December 1938, Richmond Glass Shop had a new home at 814 W. Broad St., site of the old Ashland Railway Station. The shop, run by brothers Frank R. and A.G. Bialkowski, had glass of many types, and offered bath and kitchen installation, storefront construction and paint products.
In March 1979, corrections officer Howard Alexander held the homemade rope used by convicted murderer Michael Irwin Cross to escape from the State Penitentiary, then located along Spring Street in downtown Richmond. Cross was captured two months later after attempting to free a fellow convict who was being treated at Medical College of Virginia Hospital.
In June 1986, “Mr. Newspaper” greeted a young girl and her mother at a Richmond-area mall. The RTD mascot often traveled around town promoting the newspaper.
In July 1951, Alonzo Moore, 74, walked down a street in Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and blew his horn, alerting locals to his sale of the fresh catch of the day.
In July 1960, the Schellenberg family of Highland Springs prepared to have a bomb shelter installed in their yard, one of Virginia’s first privately owned radiation fallout shelters. The enclosure was designed to accommodate up to six people during a nuclear attack. The horizontal steel tank (rear) was 7 feet in diameter and 16 feet long. Once installed, the only elements aboveground would be a domed entrance and air filter and exhaust pipes.
In June 1979, Terry Woo set bricks for a walkway as construction of Kanawha Plaza in downtown Richmond continued. The $4 million dollar city-financed plaza linked the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond building and the Virginia Electric and Power Co. building.
In July 1951, two women enjoyed the white sand beach of Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
In June 1968, workers welded boilers at Old Dominion Iron and Steel Corp., located on Belle Isle under the Lee Bridge in Richmond. At the time, Old Dominion’s owner was interested in expanding operations, and the city was interested in using the island as part of a James River park. The company’s history on Belle Isle spanned from before the Civil War to the 1970s.
In November 1972, after the remnants of Hurricane Agnes had washed out a bridge, a barge carried vehicles and workers across the James River from Tredegar Street toward Belle Isle in Richmond. A day earlier, a welder for Old Dominion Iron and Steel Corp. drowned after a boat carrying him and others capsized on the same route.
This December 1973 photo shows the front counter in Roaring Twenties, a new restaurant and nightclub on state Route 10 in the Hopewell area. It was designed to resemble a 1920s speakeasy, with features including an antique cash register, a diving girl and even a dining table from Al Capone’s Florida home.
In October 1969, cadets at John Marshall High School in Richmond posed with their ribbon-bedecked sponsors after an awards ceremony. The school’s Corps of Cadets was established in 1915 — it was the first military training program in a public school in Virginia — and disbanded in 1971.
In May 1989, a transformer exploded under the sidewalk on the Fourth Street side of the Richmond Newspapers Inc. building downtown. The ensuing fireball charred two cars parked on the street and sent flames up the side of the building. No one was hurt in the nighttime explosion, and delivery of the next morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch (which was printed in the building) was only slightly delayed.
In August 1972, motorists approaching construction on Interstate 64 south of Bryan Park in Richmond were greeted by a robot signalman waving a bright red flag. “Silent Sam,” as the decoy was nicknamed, was used by the state Department of Highways to slow drivers as they neared workmen building an I-195 interchange and bridge near the Acca rail yards.
Allan-Charles Chipman, former 6th District City Council candidate and executive director of Initiatives of Change USA. Contact Chipman at [email protected].
David Dominique is a writer, musician and concerned community member living in Richmond. Contact Dominique at [email protected].