Tysons Casino Bill Voted On By VA Senate Subcommittee

RICHMOND, VA — Legislation that would pave the way for a casino to be built in Tysons cleared its first hurdle of the 2026 legislative session of the Virginia General Assembly.

On Friday morning, the Senate Subcommittee on Gaming voted 5 to 3 to recommend the bill for a vote of the full Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) presented Senate Bill 756 to the subcommittee, describing it as the same legislation he introduced during the 2025 legislative session.

"First of all, it has to be within a quarter-mile of the Metro Silver Line station," he said, summarizing the bill. "It requires a 1.5 million square foot entertainment-convention center complex, a 6,000 seat concert venue, 5,000 person conference center, hotel entertainment district, IMAX center for sporting events, is what it contemplates. It also has to be within two miles of an enclosed mall, and it's basically the entire Tysons corridor."

In 2023 and 2024, Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke) carried the same legislation, which specified that the developer sought to build a casino near the Spring Street Metro station.

On Friday, Surovell said he was aware of two sites that are being assembled in Tysons that could be locations for the casino development.

"Of course, anybody who wants to bring forward a proposal and assemble enough lots to build it could do so, as well," he said.

Read Patch's reporting on Comstock Companies' plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

In response to a question from Sen. Jeremy Pike (D-Dale City), the subcommittee chair, Surovell confirmed that the bill contains language that requires a referendum that would allow voters to decide if they want a casino in Tysons or not.

During the public testimony portion of the meeting, Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert spoke in opposition to the bill, as she had in previous years.

"There was no casino in that comp plan," she said. "Every year when I head to Richmond to speak against this notion, I hear from hundreds of residents of Vienna opposing a casino and listing many reasons, ranging from safety to diverting funds from charitable gaming. Towns, cities and counties in Virginia like to do what is best for their area, for their residents. Fairfax County did not ask permission to build a casino. We do not want it."

Several Northern Virginia residents spoke against the bill at Friday's meeting, including Jennifer Falcone of the Citizens for Great Falls community group. She is also a member of the No Fairfax Casino Coalition.

"A (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission) study analyzing the impacts of a Northern Virginia casino has not been conducted," she said, as her first objection to the legislation. We continue to hear claims about revenue generation and benefits to our county by the patron of this bill and its failed present predecessors, but no formal fiscal or independent economic impact analysis has been conducted. Finally, unlike the other authorized casinos, Fairfax County has not requested this legislative authority."

Virginia Diamond, president of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, spoke in support of SB756, along with several other union representatives.

"We have unique agreements that would allow thousands of workers to have the right to earn good salaries with union jobs, both construction and permanent jobs," she said. "We feel very strongly that the working class residents of Fairfax County deserve the right to have a vote and express our voice. We would like to have the facts come out and have this considered not taken off the table due to just certain loud voices and well-heeled members of the community."

Also See ...

• GOP Delegate Behind First Casino Bill Co-Patron On 2026 Legislation
• New VA Casino Bill Draws Criticism From Fairfax Leaders
• $2.5M Spent By Tysons Casino Backer On Lobbyists, Donations

Before the subcommittee voted, Surovell rebutted comments made by the bill's opponents.

"I would just like to note that Tysons Corner is not thriving," Surovell said. "One of its biggest tenants, Booz Allen, just left and moved to the Reston Metro corridor to get out. All the development there has stalled."

Surovell neglected to mention that the developer behind the Tysons casino effort is Booz Allen Hamilton's new landlord in Reston.

Last November, Comstock Holding Companies, the developer that's spent more than $2.5 million to advance its plans to build a casino in Tysons, announced that Booz Allen Hamilton had signed multiple leases for office space at 1870 Reston Row Plaza, according to a Comstock release.

Reston Row is a mixed-use development that Comstock is developing near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station, where Comstock's headquarters happens to be located.

In 2022, Puttshack, an upscale, tech-infused mini golf experience company, signed a lease with Comstock for a 29,000 square-foot space at 1870 Reston Row Plaza, where Booz Allen now plans to move its headquarters.

“Following the execution of the new Booz Allen lease at Reston Station, the space previously under consideration for Puttshack will now be incorporated into Booz Allen’s expanded footprint,” a Comstock spokesperson told FFXnow in December. “As a result, Puttshack will not be moving forward at Reston Station.”

During his rebuttal, Surovell also said there has already been a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission study for a casino in Northern Virginia.

"The idea that a Fairfax County casino needs to be studied because it might not be viable is preposterous," he said. "It was looked at in JLARC and the JLARC study specifically said, if there's one in Northern Virginia it would by far be the most valuable one in the entire state."

While the 2022 JLARC study Surovell referred to did consider the impact of building a casino in Northern Virginia, it had a statewide focus and did not evaluate the specific impact of building a casino in Tysons or any other municipality in Northern Virginia.

"I appreciate all the doomsday stuff you're hearing," Surovell told the subcommittee. "But it's simply not accurate. It's a lot of, from my perspective, NIMBYism."