RESTON, VA — Public sentiment to a casino being built in Fairfax County has remained mostly opposed to the idea since Patch first reported on Sept. 25 that Comstock Companies was planning to build one somewhere on the Silver Line outside the Capital Beltway.
“The money that it would bring in will overshadow the safety challenges and challenges to the more vulnerable who may see this as a road to financial security when it can be a road to financial ruin,” said one Fairfax County resident. “We accommodate growth and the benefits and challenges it brings. A casino is a leap too far.”
Earlier this month, residents of Vienna, Tysons, and Reston responded to a phone survey conducted by an unidentified telemarketer about building a casino in Fairfax County. Although unable to identify who conducted the phone survey, Patch interviewed residents who took it and they shared some of the questions they were asked.
In October, 917 county residents responded to Patch’s unscientific survey, asking whether they supported the casino proposal. An overwhelming number of respondents (816 or 89 percent) said they opposed a casino on Metro’s Silver Line and 654 (71.3 percent) said they opposed a casino being built anywhere in Fairfax County.
After reporting on the recent phone survey, Patch posted another anonymous survey using some of the telemarketers’ questions to see if public sentiment had changed regarding the casino proposal.
Of the 557 people who responded to the new Patch survey, 477 (85.6 percent) said they objected to a casino being built anywhere in Fairfax County compared to 32 (5.7 percent) who said they might object and 46 (8.6 percent) who voiced no objection.
In order to gauge how deeply these objections were, Patch asked how much the respondents objected to a casino being built, with 477 (85.6 percent) saying, “A lot,” 25 (4.5 percent) said “About 50-50,” 11 (2 percent) said “A little bit,” and 44 said (7.9 percent) “Not at all.”
“I will take action to stop the building of any casino in Fairfax County,” one survey respondent said, when asked to share their thoughts on the proposed casino. “It is the proposal of greedy individuals who won’t hesitate to prey on vulnerable people with addictions.
Much of the uncertainty around Comstock’s plans concerned where a casino would actually be built. Local officials told Patch in September that the developer was interested in building a casino at or near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station.
During the Virginia General Assembly’s 2023 session, State Sen. David Marsden (D-Burke) and Del. Wren Williams (R-Stuart) introduced and then quickly withdrew nearly identical bills that, if passed, would’ve given the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors the authority to put a casino-related referendum on a future ballot.
Marsden told Patch that he plans to reintroduce an expanded casino referendum bill during the 2024 session, which convenes on Jan. 10. The new bill would propose the building of a show hall and conference center anchored by a casino in Tysons.
“If we’re going to have a downtown, let’s make it look like a downtown and have a thing that attracts people in the off-hours, not just business during the business day,” he told Patch in November.
“The proposed casino sites are in communities with families,” one respondent said. “There is nothing family-friendly or community building about a casino. It would bring more traffic to an already congested area. It would bring crime to areas that are already seeing an uptick in crime in recent years. The 123/Rte 7 proposed site is too close to several schools. Vienna, Tysons, and Reston DO NOT need or want a casino in our communities!”
In three separate interviews, Marsden said his preference was for a casino to be built in Tysons, although he would not identify a specific location. Prefiling for the new session began on Nov. 20. As of Tuesday afternoon, Marsden had not pre-filed any legislation.
“While I have no ethical objections to adding a casino to the Fairfax County community, I do not think either Reston/ Wiehle or the Tysons area is suitable,” one person who took the survey said.
When asked whether they would object to a casino being built in the Reston or Tysons area, 489 (87.8 percent) said “yes,” 48 (8.6 percent) said “no,” and 20 (3.6 percent) said “maybe.”
Many of the survey respondents said a casino was a “bad idea” that would harm the surrounding areas by increasing traffic congestion, encouraging people to gamble, preying on the vulnerable, and lead to an increase of crime.
“My concern about building a casino in Reston or Tysons is mostly a concern which already exists through the expanded Silver Line Metro,” one survey respondent said. “Ever since the Silver Line opened up there has been an undeniable rise of crime, including violent crime. Having more people with access via Metro to get to Tysons and Reston with adding a casino is going to cause an additional rise in crime, along with more taxes in an area with high cost of living.”
Another respondent said that while they understood how a politician might be attracted to the potential tax revenue a casino might bring in, it made no sense to put a casino in “uber-congested Tysons.”
Respondents were asked to rank on a scale of 1 to 5 their agreement with the following statement, with 1 being “strongly agree” and 5 being “strongly disagree, with the following statement: “A casino would make my community less secure.”
Using the same 1-5 scale, respondents were asked to rank their agreement with the following statement: “A casino would encourage gambling.”
Not all of the respondents to Patch’s survey objected to a casino being built in Reston or Tysons and some shared their opinions.
“All of the citizens who wildly advocated for the Metro coming to Reston are now NIMBYs. Imagine that! Get RID of BOTH golf courses and bring a casino,” one person said. “And more. We are SICK of paying ever more taxes to support things that were never needed in the first place (while three Metro stops in Reston one of which has ZERO parking spaces).”
“There is so much current and approved residential development near the Wiele Station and is a ‘neighborhood area’ on the south side of the DTR [Dulles Toll Road],” another said. “Maybe Tysons has a commercial area that is far enough away to make sense, maybe.”
The final question on the Patch survey, which was the same that the unidentified telemarketer asked at the end of their phone survey, concerned the level of support respondents would give to a politician who backed the proposed casino.
Of the 557 respondents who took the survey, 374 (67.1 percent) said they would “never” and 131 said they would “not very likely” support a politician who favored a casino. That added up to a majority of 505 people (96.6 percent) who expressed some level of opposition to a politician who proposed a casino for Fairfax County, Reston or Tysons.
On the flipside, 31 people (5.6 percent) said they would “likely” support such a politician and 21 (3.8 percent) answering “very likely.”
Patch has reached out to Comstock numerous times since September, asking for an interview, comment or statement about their casino plans. As of Tuesday afternoon, no response had been received.
Related:
Read all of Patch’s reporting on Comstock Companies’ plan to build a casino on Metro’s Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.
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