We have reported in the past about the planned casino in Bristol, Virginia. The casino is going through some strong opposition from a local group. The news this week is that a detail of the interior of the planned casino is now available to everyone and the casino looks very much like an Integrated Resort.
Savory People
One of the major complaints against old and new land based casinos is that they attract people that the local population would rather not see in their midst. Online casinos have the advantage of being located in cyberspace which has none of the problems of land based casinos.
Now, online casinos have their own difficulties to overcome and they do so by offering many more games than land based casinos can, encrypting all transactions to assure players of the safety of their money, and offering the best casino bonuses.
A Well-Rounded Clientele Base
An Integrated Casino attracts people from many social strata such as families, young couple, gamers, conventioneers, and general vacationers. It tries to make the casino secondary to everything else that people can enjoy in the resort. Bristol, Virginia is in the heart of an outdoors vacation area, with rushing rivers, mountain and valley hiking, wildlife observation, fishing and bird watching.
Nevertheless, the area around Bristol has been losing vacation travelers to other areas that are closer to Washington D.C. There are many places in the Shenandoah Mountains area where people can enjoy a great vacation for a long weekend or more. So, Bristol went looking for a way to attract vacationers that would increase employment, raise tax revenue, and be accepted by the local population.
The casino is both popular and unpopular in Bristol but now that everyone can see the layout of the complex, the entrepreneurs building the casino hope that they will reverse some of the opposition so that more local people can get on board the project.
Integrated Resort in Bristol, Virginia
The complex has been given the name of Bristol Resort and Casino. The complex is going to go up at the site of the former Bristol Mall which failed during the recent recession in the United States and the slow recovery from it.
The resort owners made the very important point that the resort will be open to the public and not just to gamblers at the casino.
The diagram that the casino managers released to the public shows all of the elements of an Integrated Resort.
Casino Plus
The complex will have a convention center, an amusement park, restaurants including the quintessential casino buffet and a more luxurious restaurant. The main cuisine of the restaurant will be determined later.
The complex will have a theater for shows and concerts. There are many such entertainment centers in the most attractive vacation areas that are essentially located in rural areas all over the Unite States. As long as the theater is not too far for people to drive there, the theaters can host a wide range of entertainments and can draw audiences from an eclectic population.
The hotel and spa will allow patrons to have a great vacation without ever stepping into the casino.
Casino as an Adjunct
The modern land based casino was created in Las Vegas. One of the major aspects of most Las Vegas Casinos is that hotel patrons have to walk through the casino to get to the hotel desk.
This later became one of the areas of contention for all casinos that tried to locate in deeply religious areas. The Integrated Resort in Bristol will actually have the casino off to the side. People who want to come to a convention can do so without needing to walk through the casino.
The same is true for people coming to the theater, spa, amusement park, restaurants or shopping areas.
Strong Opposition
Three is still strong opposition to the Bristol Resort and Casino. The state legislature has to approve the project before building can begin. The layout of the complex was probably released to the public to show that the complex will be resort first and a casino second, third, or fourth.
Everyone agrees that the casino will bring jobs and tax revenue to the local area and to the state. However, opponents point out that Bristol is a small town and can’t accommodate the kinds of crowds that a resort and casino will likely bring.
The resort is going to be located at the outskirts of the city. That means that people coming to any of the many amenities the resort will offer will be able bypass the town of Bristol altogether. This, of course, has local businesspeople upset as they hope to benefit from the “spillover” from the resort.
A local restaurant or pub with something to offer would like a big influx of people from points far and near. Local stores of all sorts want more potential customers. The people of Bristol are used to having vacationers come in relatively small numbers. Some locals are afraid of a massive influx of outsiders. They cite the challenge to all local infrastructures.
State Needs
The state of Virginia benefits from every dollar spent in the state. To the state lawmakers in Richmond, across the state from Bristol, there may be more incentive to bring as many people to Virginia as possible. That would lead the legislature to approve the project.
On the other hand, if opposition to the project remains high, the politicians in Richmond might find that it is less in their interests to approve the project than to deny it their approval.
Even if the state does approve the project it would take about two years for the complex to be ready to open and a lot can happen in two years.
So the release of the way the resort and casino complex will look was welcome news to all sides in the ongoing debate in Virginia.
