Norfolk will seek the state's approval for riverboat gambling

NORFOLK

Although they acknowledge it's a long shot, city officials have decided to ask the General Assembly for permission to bring riverboat gambling to the downtown waterfront.

With little debate, the City Council agreed on Tuesday to make riverboat gambling one its key legislative requests to Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly.

Councilman Paul R. Riddick, who for years has been urging the council to push the issue, said he doesn't yet have a sponsor for the bill and that the General Assembly might not like the idea.

"All we can do is give it our best shot," he said.

City officials said it will be the fourth time they have asked permission to have riverboat gambling, but the first in more than a decade.

The city's initial effort came in 1994, when Del. Jerrauld Jones, D-Norfolk, sponsored a bill supported by House Speaker Thomas W. Moss, D-Norfolk, and Del. Eric Cantor, R-Richmond, now a prominent congressman. The bill generated much opposition from legislators from outside Hampton Roads and failed 55-42.

Similar bills the following two years also were defeated. A 1995 bill never made it out of committee. In 1996, the House voted 69-28 against riverboat gambling.

As a delegate from Virginia Beach, McDonnell twice voted against riverboat gambling.

Six states have legalized riverboat gambling, but none since 1993.

In Virginia, rural legislators, as well as many from suburban Richmond and Northern Virginia, combined to defeat the three Norfolk proposals. Christian leaders, including many African American ministers, were in opposition.

Riddick is now gambling that more than a decade later, attitudes have changed.

He said Norfolk will propose putting all state tax revenue from riverboat gambling into a "lock box" to be spent on transportation. It is a way to generate revenue without raising taxes, he said.

As proposed by the city, riverboats would depart from the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center cruise ship terminal and head into the harbor and perhaps the Chesapeake Bay for several hours or more.

Riddick said if it operated like riverboats in Joliet, Ill., dinners and shows would be offered in addition to gambling. Riverboats also would be allowed in other waterfront cities, including Virginia Beach, Hampton and Newport News.

Riddick called the potential tax revenue enormous. "You have so many people driving past us to gamble in Delaware and Atlantic City. We'd like for those people to spend their money here."

Mayor Paul Fraim acknowledged the legislation probably won't pass in the upcoming General Assembly session and maybe not the next but said that it's time to raise the issue. "This is going to be a multiyear process," he said.

Del. Paula Miller, D-Norfolk, said she is generally in favor of the concept. She said she has polled her constituents, and they said they would like options such as riverboat gambling. "Many of them have said they don't want to spend their tax dollars outside Virginia and want to bring tax dollars into Norfolk," she said.

Del. Kenny Alexander, D-Norfolk, said he is inclined to vote no. "I would be very surprised if the faith-based community would embrace riverboat gambling," he said. "I don't know that much has changed since the 1990s."

Alexander and Miller said they need to read the bill before making a final decision. Alexander said he worries that poor and middle-income residents, especially those prone to gambling addictions, will fall prey to gambling.

Riddick said the state already sponsors forms of gambling that can be much more destructive to the working poor. There is a state-sponsored lottery and a horse track in New Kent County with satellite betting parlors. He said riverboats generally charge admissions fees that would discourage all but the well-heeled.

"I'm concerned about the potential social ills, just like Kenny Alexander," he said. "I represent the same people.

"But this is not going to be like a casino, where people can just walk in. It's going to be a place that will attract people now spending their money elsewhere."