DANVILLE, Va. – Danville is seeing a big economic boost.
Weeks after opening, Caesar’s Virginia temporary casino brought in $30 million and the city saw nearly $2 million in revenue.
John Shutts or “Johnny Bodacious” as many call him, has owned Schoolfield Restaurant for 8 years.
Shutts says he’s seen Danville change positively over that time frame.
“Absolutely, it’s been magnificent to watch the economic director and development make this dream happen for the city,” Shutts said.
Shutts is excited about the new possibilities considering his business is steps away from where Caesars will be built.
While the temporary casino is operating, it’s good news for his business; he says foot traffic has increased.
“It’s exciting I mean we’re just enjoying all the way around, we’ve been expanding our hours little by little, trying to compensate slowly watching the growth come in, I think sales are up 5-10% right now,” Shutts said.
According to the Virginia Lottery, since Caesar’s opened the temporary casino in May, it brought in nearly $30 million total in revenue.
City leaders say they are feeling the effects.
“We are certainly pleased to have this visitation for the Danville casino the numbers look really good,” Danville City Manager Ken Larking said.
Larking says the city gets about 8.5% that Caesars collects every month.
For June, Larking says the city collected about $1.6 million which will go to a rainy-day account.
For this fiscal year, Larking says the city is expected to collect $13 million which will go toward education, economic development, workforce development, quality of life, and infrastructure.
“We want to be careful about making strategic investments that would help us with sustainable growth over time the purpose of Danville having this opportunity for having the casino was to improve lives for people who live here,” Larking said.
The numbers for July are expected to be released by mid-August.