The grand
opening on Thursday followed a “soft opening” of the facility on Oct. 23. Officials from the Town of Dumfries, Virginia Department of Agriculture, and the facility’s owner/operator, Churchill Downs, Inc., led the grand opening.
The Rose
Gaming Resort is the largest gaming site in a network of eight Rosie’s Gaming
Emporiums in Virginia. The Emporiums are in Richmond, Collinsville,
Emporia, Hampton, New Kent, Vinton, and Dumfries, Va.
The Rose
The new resort
in Dumfries holds 1,650 historical horse racing (HHR) machines, not casino slot
machines. HHR terminals look and feel like traditional casino slot machines but
operate in a different way to determine a winning spin.
Gamblers visiting
the new facility can try their luck playing HHR machines or wagering on live horse
racing available via simulcast TVs. A new public park is under development as
part of the resort, eight bars and restaurants are open, including the 1609
Steak House and Playbook Sports Bar and Grill.
A hotel with
over 100 rooms is part of the resort but is currently unavailable. The grand opening
event on Thursday was held in the resort’s parking garage which provides over
2,500 spaces.
Northern Virginia gaming destination
The resort’s
General Manager Bobbi Sample said the aim is to make “The Rose” Northern
Virginia's premier gaming destination. The new resort is a 30-minute drive from
a MGM casino in National Harbor, Md. The MGM casino opened in December 2016 and
offers 2,288 slot machines and 211 table games to visitors.
“We're proud
to call Dumfries our home and to give back to this community that has so warmly
embraced us,” Sample said at the grand opening.
Bill Carstanjen,
CEO of Churchill Downs, said 500 employees currently work at The Rose resort.
“Many of
them are new to our company, new to our culture, and they've just stepped up
and done an amazing thing under pretty intense time pressures and construction
issues,” Carstanjen said.
The new Rose
Gaming Resort is owned and operated by Churchill Downs and Colonial Downs. Churchill
Downs is best known for the Kentucky Derby. Known as the company’s crown jewel,
the Kentucky Derby is 150 years old and the longest continually run sporting
event in the United States.
Churchill
Downs became the parent company of Colonial Downs in 2022. Before Churchill
Downs was involved in the project, the Colonial Downs Group planned to open The
Rose gaming floor in October 2023 and the hotel in January 2024. That didn’t
happen.
Without the
gaming resort open, the Town of Dumfries was unable to gain tax revenue. To
contribute to the shortfall in tax revenue, Churchill Downs made a financial
offer to the Town of Dumfries and increased the number of gaming machines in
the facility.
The gambling
resort is located on the side of the former Potomac Landfill bordered by
Virginia Route 234 and Interstate 95.
“This hasn't
been an easy project,” Carstanjen said. "This is a landfill. We're
actually taking a landfill here and capping it, converting it into green space
with the public park. So this is presented all kinds of technical problems,
construction problems, all things that our team just plowed through to make
this happen. When you build a project like this, you like a big flat piece of
land and lots of open space to do things the way you want to do that, and
that's not possible here in Northern Virginia.”
Dumfries
Mayor Derrick Wood called the new Rose facility the beginning of a new era for
the town, an era of transformation and opportunity.
Proud achievement for Dumfries
“This is a
transformation from a landfill to a landmark, an achievement we can all be
proud of,” Wood said. The mayor hopes the new facility will draw visitors from
across the region and beyond, “putting our town on the map as a destination place
in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.”
“The
millions in tax revenue generated is going to empower us as a town to reinvest
in public service, to improve our infrastructure, and it has enhanced the
quality of life for everyone who calls the Town of Dumfries home,” Wood added.
Democratic Virginia
Del. Luke Torian thanked the Virginia General Assembly members who helped make The
Rose facility possible.
“The Rose could
have been built in Loudoun County. It could have been built in Fairfax County,
but instead of going to Loudoun County or Fairfax, they came to a community of
less than 6,000 residents, a small town with big vision,” Torian said during
the grand opening.
The event ended
with a ceremonial ribbon cutting that officially opened The Rose Gaming Resort.
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