The tribe had a right of first refusal to partner on the effort and chose to exercise that option, Sneed said. “I believe there were seven respondents to the bid, and Caesars won the day.” “Danville was the only city out of all the cities that were predetermined to receive a gaming license that actually did a competitive bid process,” Sneed said. Cherokee had initially hoped to build a casino just outside Bristol, but the license was awarded to Hard Rock International instead.

The Danville project is Cherokee’s second attempt to open a casino in Virginia, which through a 2019 law opened the door to permit casinos in five cities. Tribal Council will have to pass a written allocation plan specific to the Danville casino, which could include contributions to per capita, tribal programs or other uses.

At the tribe’s existing casinos in North Carolina, half the profits enter the tribal budget while half are disbursed to tribal members in semi-annual per capital payments. It’s not yet certain what the revenues will fund. Its main feeder markets will be Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro - currently a “single-digit percentage” of Cherokee’s players come from those markets. Danville is a four-hour drive from Cherokee, just over the state line north of Greensboro, and will not directly compete with the Cherokee market, Sneed said. Sneed said that 21 million people live within a three-hour drive of Danville, raising expectations that the casino will be quite lucrative once complete. The casino is expected to open in late 2024, “fingers crossed” that variables such as supply chain issues, labor shortages and inflation don’t delay the timeline, Sneed said. The cell phone erupted to life on the nightstand in the pitch-black bedroom.

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