It’s halftime at the General Assembly. Are Petersburg’s casino dreams still in the game? – Progress Index

RICHMOND We have reached the midway point of the General Assembly's 2022 legislative session a session that so far has dealt a bad hand to Petersburg in the push to land casino gambling.

As we make the turn toward the home stretch of the session,the question persists as to whether that bad hand will force casino supporters either to foldor hope that they have a hidden ace.

If you listen to the city's elected representatives in Richmond, they are not yet ready to walk away from the table.

Last week saw the powerful Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee in a surprise move defeat legislation that would allow Petersburg voters to choose whether or not they would like to see a casino open here. The 9-7 vote was called a surprise because just eight days earlier, another Senate committee unanimously agreed to the referendum, but still wanted the Finance folks to bless the idea as well.

More: Petersburg casino referendum sponsor 'utterly bewildered' over defeat in Senate committee

Its reception at Senate Finance was not as warm and fuzzy as the General Laws & Technology Committee.

Members began questioning why Petersburg unlike the five other Virginia cities approved two years ago as casino hosts did not have a recommendation from the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission on the economic feasibility of legal gambling. Despite the best efforts of Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond and the bill's chief sponsor, six Democrats and three Republicans on the panel did not buy into it.

On the other side of the state Capitol, that version of the bill barely made it past the door and into the front parlor of the House of Delegates. Del. Kim Taylor's bill was first yanked from the General Laws subcommittee that was going to hear it, then it was put on the agenda of the very last meeting of the subcommittee before Crossover Day.

Following almost 40 minutes of testimony from supporters and opponents, a subcommittee member persuaded his colleagues to delay voting on it. Since there were no more meetings scheduled, that move all but killed the bill.

For Taylor, a first-time legislator in Richmond, that could have been seen as a baptism of fire in the world known as Virginia politics. For Morrissey, her counterpart in the Senate and a veteran of political thrust-and-parry, the Finance vote was a blindside that left him scratching his head.

Of the five cities chosen to have referendums on casino gambling within their limits, only Richmond saw the issue defeated. That prompted Morrissey to promote Petersburg as an alternative to Richmond, and he drafted legislation that not only would have given Petersburg the referendum but also blocked Richmond from voting on the issue again for a five-year period from the date it was defeated.

Richmond led the opposition to the bill, but one of the yes votes in Finance came from Sen. Jennifer McClellan, a Richmond Democrat.

Despite those setbacks, both lawmakers have vowed to soldier on and look for a way to get the issue back in front of the Assembly. Judging by their most recent reactions, they appear to be going all-in to have the topic revisited before the end of the session.

More: Technical amendments to Petersburg casino vote bill could cancel Richmond's plan to revote

More: State senator says Petersburg casino referendum bill unaffected by Richmond plan to revote

Shortly after the Finance vote, Morrissey hinted that he may try to get the casino issue into the state budget that is expected to dominate the legislature's second-half debates. However, as of this writing, nothing has been set in stone.

On the House side, a Taylor spokesperson said her boss "continues to fight for the casino" and "looking at different options to make that happen.

"Things are constantly evolving, and we are making every effort to bring the casino to Petersburg," the spokesperson said.

Those options have not yet been made public.

As for the city's reaction to how the whole episode is unfolding, a spokesperson declined comment Tuesday afternoon.

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Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is daily news coach for USA TODAY's Southeast Region-Unified Central, which includes Virginia, West Virginia and central North Carolina. He is based in Petersburg, Virginia. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com.

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It's halftime at the General Assembly. Are Petersburg's casino dreams still in the game? - Progress Index