{"id":155392,"date":"2025-09-23T12:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T12:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/155392\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T12:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T12:41:08","slug":"virginia-racing-commission-approves-roseshire-gaming-parlor-in-henrico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/155392\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Racing Commission Approves Roseshire Gaming Parlor in Henrico"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Virginia Racing Commission\u00a0has given\u00a0Churchill Downs<\/a>\u00a0the go-ahead to open its controversial\u00a0Roseshire Gaming Parlor\u00a0in Henrico County, voting unanimously to approve an operating license despite consistent opposition from local leaders and residents. The decision clears the way for the facility to open its doors on\u00a0September 29, 2025, at the\u00a0Staples Mill Shopping Center.<\/p>\n

The venue, branded as an upscale version of\u00a0Rosie\u2019s Gaming Emporium, will feature 175 historic horse racing (HHR) machines, simulcast wagering, live entertainment, and a sit-down restaurant. Nearly 100 employees have already been hired to staff the property. Churchill Downs, which owns several other Rosie\u2019s locations across Virginia<\/a>, has described Roseshire as offering\u00a0\u201cexciting games, great entertainment, and top-tier food and beverage, including an innovative mocstail program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community Backlash and Legal Disputes<\/p>\n

The approval\u00a0has sparked anger\u00a0among Henrico County officials, who argue that Churchill Downs sidestepped proper public input by exploiting a decades-old referendum. The company secured its license by relying on a\u00a01992 local vote\u00a0that permitted off-track betting, a legal basis critics insist does not apply to machines that did not exist at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say that we OKed machines in 1992 that weren\u2019t even created in 1997 is, I think, an abuse of the law, quite frankly,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0State Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, as reported by VPM<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cI think we have seen a company \u2014 and now we\u2019ve seen a racing commission \u2014 that have gone out of their way to avoid the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henrico Supervisor Dan Schmitt\u00a0was equally blunt in criticizing the operator\u2019s approach:\u00a0\u201cThey are doing whatever it is they want, to run rampant, regardless of what the community wants. The folks that want to speak to them \u2026 are the folks that they are ignoring, and that\u2019s the community that they wish to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

County leaders highlighted how Churchill Downs submitted its permit application in June 2024,\u00a0narrowly beating a zoning amendment\u00a0that would have required more public hearings. That timing, paired with the reliance on\u00a0a 33-year-old referendum, left many feeling excluded from the process.<\/p>\n

Efforts to introduce new requirements for local referendums on gambling facilities have faltered at the state level. VanValkenburg had pushed through bipartisan legislation mandating public votes, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin\u00a0removed the provision\u00a0through budget amendments.<\/p>\n

Youngkin defended his decision, noting the company had already secured its approvals and invested heavily in the project.\u00a0\u201cThey received all the permits they needed to start building. They had invested $5 million in this new site, and then someone came and tried to change the rules on them,\u201d\u00a0the governor said. Churchill Downs has since disclosed that its total investment in the Henrico venue reached\u00a0$35 million.<\/p>\n

The situation has fueled broader criticism of the Racing Commission itself. Some officials accused the body of prioritizing revenue for the state\u2019s horse racing industry over its regulatory responsibilities. A 2022 study had already questioned whether the commission had\u00a0\u201cadequate staffing, expertise or regulations\u201d\u00a0to\u00a0oversee HHR machines\u00a0effectively.<\/p>\n

Churchill Downs\u2019 Defense and Next Steps<\/p>\n

Churchill Downs has presented Roseshire as\u00a0a community-minded project,\u00a0promising to hire locally and donate to regional charities. Jack Sours, the company\u2019s vice president of gaming, told the commission that a\u00a0\u201ccommunity-focused\u201d\u00a0approach would be central to its operations.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Henrico leaders remain unconvinced. Schmitt dismissed the promises, arguing that actions spoke louder than words:\u00a0\u201cI only wish we had receptive ears on behalf of the commission and on behalf of the folks who proposed this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

County Manager John Vithoulkas\u00a0suggested that legal challenges could still be ahead, remarking,\u00a0\u201cIt ain\u2019t over until it\u2019s over. We\u2019ll sit down, regroup and see what (the next moves) are going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Roseshire venue, though smaller in scale than Richmond\u2019s Rosie\u2019s<\/a> with its 1,200 machines, is expected to contribute to local tax revenue once operational. Churchill Downs maintains the Henrico site will not take business away from Richmond, citing research showing most Rosie\u2019s customers travel from within a five-mile radius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Virginia Racing Commission\u00a0has given\u00a0Churchill Downs\u00a0the go-ahead to open its controversial\u00a0Roseshire Gaming Parlor\u00a0in Henrico County, voting unanimously to approve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-155392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}