Petersburg, Virginia, and The Cordish Companies on October 23, 2026 named seven people to a Local Advisory Board that will screen funding requests paid from Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia benefit money and send recommendations to City Council, according to Yogonet, which cites The Progress-Index. We found no second independent source for the appointments, so every reported figure below rests on that single account.
According to that account, the board consists of Rob Norton, president of the Cordish Gaming Group; Vice Mayor Darrin Hill; State Senator Lashrecse Aird; Delegate Kimberly Pope Adams; former Petersburg Mayor Annie Mickens; Sam Rhue, chair of the Petersburg Economic Development Authority; and Richard Taylor, a former EDA member.
The pool the board advises on is narrow. Yogonet reports that the city agreed to set aside 5% of each annual benefit payment from Cordish for these funds. Under the 2024 agreement, Cordish pays Petersburg $16 million in total over 10 years, plus a one-time $15 million payment when the temporary casino opened in January. A separate citizen board will also have input on how casino revenue is spent, the report says.
We have not seen the payment schedule, so the board's annual budget can only be estimated within a range.
If the $16 million were spread evenly, each annual payment would be $1.6 million and the 5% share would be $80,000 a year, or $800,000 across the decade. That even split is an assumption, not a reported term. If 5% of the $15 million opening payment were also included, the set-aside would gain $750,000 once, but Yogonet's account, as available to us, does not say whether that payment counts as an "annual benefit payment" at all.
The text of the 2024 agreement or a city budget line showing the actual yearly amounts would settle it.
The casino's own figures are much larger. According to Yogonet, the 75,000-square-foot temporary casino opened on January 22 and has since generated more than $105 million in adjusted gross revenue and more than $16 million in state and local tax revenue. It is due to operate until the permanent resort is finished, which the report puts at December 2027. Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia is described as a $1.4 billion project off Wagner Road. The same report says it is expected to generate about $240 million for the city over its first 10 years, which is a projection rather than a result.
Under the even-split assumption, $80,000 a year is roughly a third of one percent of the $24 million annual average that projection implies. The two numbers may not measure the same thing, because the account available to us does not say how much of the $240 million is benefit payments and how much is tax.
Mayor Sam Parham and Norton made statements in the joint announcement about the economic benefits they expect; those are the parties' own claims, not verified outcomes.
Petersburg is one of five Virginia casino host cities, alongside Bristol, Danville, Norfolk and Portsmouth, per Yogonet. Yogonet's account, as available to us, does not say whether any of the other four uses a comparable advisory board. It also does not say when the Petersburg board will hold its first meeting or begin taking requests.
Prepared with AI from independent sources and published automatically, without prior editorial review. How we use AI