Fact Sheets

A: State Senator David Marsden from Burke intends to introduce a bill to allow a casino in Fairfax County when the General Assembly convenes in January 2025. 

A. Comstock Companies and Clemente Development, large County real estate developers, are actively campaigning to bring a casino to Tysons, as is the Virginia Players Alliance, a pro-casino political advocacy group. VPA’s website does not indicate who is funding it. 

A: A casino will hurt local businesses, deter new businesses, increase gridlock and public safety problems, lower property values and encourage risky behaviors while changing our community’s character.  Every $1 in casino tax revenues, saddles us with $3-$5+ in mitigation costs. 

A: Clemente Development got the go-ahead from Fairfax County in 2019 for a complex that could include hotels, restaurants, performing arts space, retail, housing and much more. A convention center would be a desirable addition to what is already approved for development. There is no need to add an undesirable casino into the mix.

A: Doubtful. Marsden has said that a casino would lower our property taxes, increase school funding, and fund Metro shortfalls. It can’t do all of this on the $45-60 million per year in casino tax revenues that we might receive under Virginia law.  

A: Doubtful. In other states, even when gaming revenues were earmarked for education, general revenues for education declined, leaving overall funding about where it was originally. Add an answer to this item.

A: The average rate of job growth is lower in casino than in non-casino communities. While there will be good-paying construction jobs during the building phase, most casino jobs will pay about ¼ of Fairfax’s median income for a family of four. In other states, the good jobs and other economic benefits promised to local communities by corporate interests never materialized. 

A: Crime in locales hosting casinos increases about 10% each year. In Prince Georges County, within a 2-mile radius of MGM National Harbor, the number of reported offenses increased 14,641% in the first three years of operation. As for traffic, Tysons is already congested 24/7. In PG County, about 10,000+ cars were on the roads each day when the MGM casino opened there.  

Former Fairfax County Congressman Frank Wolf: “My biggest personal concern, however, with having a casino in Fairfax County is what it might do to the fabric of Fairfax County, the Town of Vienna, and surrounding communities. A casino would upend the lives of so many families.” 

Bishop Michael Burbridge of the Archdiocese of Arlington, VA: Gambling "has the power to become an addiction that leads to dangerous behavior.” 

From John King, local resident and co-founder of Perot Systems, a Fortune 500 business in Tysons: “The business model of casinos and all that they encompass is clearly out of bounds for Tysons. Ross Perot would have never funded a startup in the shadow of a casino.”

From Matt Korn, local resident who brought AOL operations HQ to Fairfax County: “AOL WOULD NEVER HAVE SELECTED TYSONS CORNER, RESTON, or ANYWHERE NEAR a CASINO to build our company — so the idea of a casino increasing tax revenues (for the state or the county) is misguided when you realize how much revenue would be lost from the companies that FLEE .”Add an answer to this item.