Virginia city to hire casino lobbyist

Danville is interested in hiring a casino lobbyist to work with local lawmakers.

US.- Danville City Manager Ken Larking has revealed that the city is interested in hiring a casino lobbyist in order to work with lawmakers in Richmond to reach the best deal if lawmakers decide to allow casinos in Virginia.

“Some of the things I believe (City Council members want) is, they want to see a minimum investment. They don’t want to see some small investment come in and have a small casino. They want to see a significant impact,” Larking said, as reported by wsls.com. “That number hasn’t really been decided, but it needs to be a significant investment.”

There is currently a bill in Virginia going through the General Assembly that would allow lawmakers to conduct a casino impact study later this year. They would decide in 2020 if they are in favour of allowing voters in Danville, Bristol and Portsmouth to decide if they want their cities to host a casino.

Larking explained that the city would pay the lobbyist, but he doesn’t know how much: “It could be anywhere from a very small amount to a few thousand dollars,” Larking said. “We haven’t decided who to go with. There’s a few things that we need to work out first before we go forward.”