Support For Casino: Share Your Opinion, Take Patch's Online Survey

RESTON, VA — Residents of Vienna, Tysons, and Reston recently responded to a phone survey conducted by an unidentified telemarketer about building a casino in Fairfax County.

"One of the questions she had was would you support or oppose a politician who proposed building this casino," said Gary Ambrose of Vienna, who took the survey. "I said, 'I would absolutely oppose him. As a matter of fact, I'm retired and so I could make this a full-time project, easily.'"

Ever since Patch first reported in September that Comstock Companies was planning to build a casino at or near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station, casinos have been a topic of discussion among local officials, politicians, and community activists.

"I did not catch the name of the survey group, but they did identify themselves as a political survey," said Jan DeLucien of Reston. "I'm very interested in politics these days, so I said, 'OK."

After collecting demographic information, including ZIP code, age, and political party affiliation, the telemarker began by asking DeLucien general questions about gambling.

"Initially, it was, 'How do you feel about gambling?" she said. "Is it that you don't approve of gambling or whatever? They took the next level down of 'Do you object to gambling being available for gamblers?'"

In his answers, Ambrose tried to impress on the telemarketer that he "sure as heck" didn't want to see a casino anywhere in Fairfax.

"I live a mile from Tysons, I don't want to see a casino, the MGM Grand, up where the 'Toilet Bowl' building is," he said, referring to one of the properties floated as a possible location.

When asked why, Ambrose said it was for many of the same quality-of-life reasons he's read about and that other people have said about the casino.

"There's no parking anywhere," he said. "When they built the Metro, they decided not to put parking up at Tysons, and I think the day they opened they figured out that was a bad idea."

Patch was unable to determine for whom the telemarketers were conducting the survey, but perhaps it's a good thing that someone is interested in asking residents what they want.

It's not like there hasn't been readily available evidence to demonstrate the community's concerns about Comstock's casino proposal.

Related:

• Casino Opposition Included In Vienna Council's 2024 Legislative Agenda
• GOP Casino Bill Backer Linked To Developer's Family, Chamber Lobbyist
• Comstock CEO Envisions Future Of Metro, Reston Station And Beyond

Read all of Patch's reporting on Comstock Companies' plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

On Dec. 4, the Vienna Town Council voted unanimously to include language in its 2024 legislative agenda informing its representatives in the Virginia General Assembly — Del. Holly Seibold (D) and State Sen. Saddam Salim (D-37) — that it strongly opposed a casino being built in Tysons.

Back in October, 917 readers responded to Patch's unscientific, online survey asking whether they supported or opposed a casino being built at the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station or somewhere else along Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County. Eighty-nine percent said they would not support a casino, some calling it "horrible" of a "bad idea."

Since that survey was published, the Reston Association Board of Directors voted unanimously to oppose Comstock's plan to build a casino. In addition, the Reston Citizens Association, Reston Strong, Rescue Reston, Reston 2020, and Save Our Sunrise formed Citizens Opposed to Reston Casino. As of 1 p.m., on Tuesday, 4,425 people had signed an online petition at Change.org expressing their opposition to the casino.

It's been over two months since Patch's previous unscientific, online survey and the public has had some time to live with the idea of a casino being built in Fairfax County. So, Patch invites its readers to complete the following survey based on the questions DeLucien and Ambrose were recently asked.