Proposed Virginia budget amendments maintain referendum mandate for planned Henrico gaming facility

The planned Roseshire gaming facility in Henrico’s Staples Mill shopping center would not be permitted to open unless voters in the county pass a referendum authorizing it, according to language that survived budget negotiations in the Virginia General Assembly Feb. 20.

A bipartisan group of 11 state representatives – six conferees from the Virginia House of Delegates and five from the Senate – released its revised set of budget amendments, which the full House and Senate now will consider during a Saturday session. If approved, they’ll head to Gov. Glenn Youngkin for review.

The proposal retains language that effectively would require Churchill Downs, Inc. (which is planning Roseshire) to petition the Henrico Circuit Court for a public referendum as the first step toward obtaining a license from the Virginia Racing Commission to operate the facility. That petition would need to be signed by at least 5% of the county’s registered voters – or about 12,500 people.

The budget language prohibits the Virginia Racing Commission from issuing a license for any satellite gaming facility in a locality whose voters had not passed a pari-mutuel wagering referendum on or after July 1, 2018 and in which the VRC had not authorized pari-mutuel wagering on historical horse racing by Jan. 1 of this year. Henrico County meets neither requirement.

If the company obtains the necessary signatures to force a referendum, the court would be required to order a special election on the issue, which could not occur later than the next scheduled general election, unless that election was scheduled within 60 days of the date on which the court issued its order.

The referendum would ask voters to vote yes or no on the question: "Shall pari-mutuel wagering on historical horse racing be permitted in Henrico County at satellite facilities in accordance with Chapter 29 (§ 59.1-364 et seq.) of Title 59.1 of the Code of Virginia?”


A majority vote in favor would allow Roseshire to open, while a majority “no” vote would kill the proposal for at least five more years, according to the budget language, which would forbid another referendum about the same issue in the same locality for that period of time.

Despite uncertainty, work continuing at site

Churchill Downs contractors have been working to ready the Roseshire site (which formerly housed a furniture store) for months, in anticipation of opening it sometime this year.

And despite uncertainty about the possible legal ramifications of the state's budget, the company appears to be proceeding with those renovation plans. On Friday afternoon, about a dozen workers were seen installing various underground components behind the facility, and two pickup trucks from contractor CK Bosworth, which has helped build at least seven other Churchill Downs-owned gaming facilities statewide, were parked in front of the building.

Voice mail and email messages left for Churchill Downs Director of Government Relations Aaron Palmer Friday had not been immediately returned by press time.

Churchill Downs filed plans for the Roseshire facility last year under existing Henrico County Code language that permitted as many as 175 historical horse racing machines in a business located on property zoned for B-2 (Business District) usage. But the company did so with the knowledge that the Henrico Board of Supervisors was planning to update its code to require a provisional use permit – and associated public hearing process – for any such proposals, which it did just days later.

The timing of that filing, though not in violation of any law, alienated county officials and the entire Henrico delegation in the General Assembly, which penned a letter July 16 urging the company to withdraw its plans.

Henrico State Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg then introduced Senate Bill 1223, which would have forced the company to submit to a public referendum or cede more than half of the revenue it otherwise would have earned from the facility. That bill was left in committee, but language from it was strengthened and included in the Senate’s proposed budget amendments, eliminating the chance for the facility to open without authorization from a referendum.

Legislation adopted in 2018 by the General Assembly and regulations developed by the Virginia Racing Commission permitted Colonial Downs in New Kent County and its parent company (now Churchill Downs) to open and operate as many as 10 off-track gambling facilities statewide offering historical horse racing machines, as a way to help fund live racing purses at the track (which is Virginia’s only horse racing rack).

HHR machines look like slot machines but allow people to wager on previously run horse races by selecting a horse (by number) after viewing its past race performances. Horses and their jockeys are not identified by name. The machines show only the last 10 seconds or so of a given race, and thousands of races are included in the system’s database.

The eight HHR facilities that Churchill Downs operates in Virginia (each of which carries the Rosie’s name or a variation thereof) were on pace to have generated more than $5 billion in wagers during 2024 – including nearly $347 million in revenue to the company – according to reports reflecting the first 11 months of the year that were published on the VRC’s website.

Other language in the budget agreement reached by the 11-member committee this week would benefit each of the localities in which those eight facilities (and potential future facilities, such as Roseshire) are located.

A proposed change would allow a locality to keep 0.56% of the pari-mutuel pools generated by historical horse racing wagering at the facility within its borders; currently, those localities keep only half that amount and send the other half to New Kent County. The change would take effect July 1, 2026 to allow New Kent officials to prepare for the reduction in income.