The folks in western Rockingham County are all fired up in opposition to the plans to build a casino on US 220 next to Camp Carefree, but in neighboring Guilford County it’s relatively quiet.
While casinos are currently illegal in North Carolina, the state legislature is reportedly poised to change that, most likely this month. The 192-acre site is up for rezoning to Highway Commercial, a zoning district that allows “electronic gaming operations,” and the request for the rezoning is being made by an LLC associated with The Cordish Companies, which operates casinos.
The word from those who claim to have the inside information from Raleigh is that all of the pieces are falling into place for this Rockingham County site to house a large casino complex in the near future.
While the site is in Rockingham County, as the crow flies it’s about four miles from the Guilford County line and Stokesdale. Summerfield is less than five miles from the proposed site and it’s about eight miles from the NC 150 and NC 68 intersection in Oak Ridge.
The site is only about 10 miles from the Greensboro city limits.
While a casino in rural Rockingham County will be a drastic change for that agricultural area, it’s also going to bring major changes just a few miles south to Summerfield, Stokesdale and Guilford County.
A casino being built just north of the Guilford County line in Rockingham County is not being built with the intention of serving the people of Rockingham County. The closest major population center is Greensboro, which has over three times the population of all of Rockingham County. Guilford County is nearly six times larger in population than its neighboring county to the north.
The major factor driving the push for casinos in the legislature is the tax revenue that they will provide for the for the state. Counties where the casinos will be located, like Rockingham, are considered economically disadvantaged, and will also benefit from increased tax revenue. But what’s the benefit to adjacent jurisdictions like Guilford County and Greensboro?
Those who oppose casinos have vast statistics about the prostitution, drugs and overall increase in crime they bring to an area. While no bill has been introduced to legalize casino gambling in the state, from what is known it appears Guilford County and Greensboro would receive a big share of all of the problems associated with casino gambling, but not a share of the revenue.
John, you are probably correct but I find it hard for Nancy and Skip to let this one slide by the wayside. Think about all the kickbacks they are giving up plus all those tax dollars for more council pet projects. Oh the total horror!
Where is Phil Berger from again?
No share of the revenue is why the owners want the Casino in Rockingham County. Guilford County is taxing businesses out of the County, the people will follow.
I’ve living in Greensboro for most of my life, and we plan to downsize at the right moment, but it won’t be here.
Don’t let the doorknob hit you…….
I’ll invite you to the party.
Would you be saying that if his name was Jerome Devonte Blackwell ?
Hey city Welcome to little Portland, truly crap for an education system,anti-police administration and murder capital of NC. You have to be proud we are ahead of Durham
Houses for sale in Pleasant Garden
Aren’t the drugs, prostitution, overall crime and government corruption already rampant? So take that out of the equation.
Alan that’s still Guilford County watch what happens to taxes once those bond payments come due. And king skippy is still in charge
Where there’s money, and politicians, the money always seems to prevail. Funny how that works. It’s almost as if…
What would I know? I’ve only worked in government for decades. I’m sure it’s all a coincidence.
Yet you managed to retain common sense. Kudos to you,
The three prime motivations of life, in no particular order: sex, power, & money. Politics supplies all three.
Lol man how is something not in Greensboro going to affect us in that manner? The casino would bring its own eco system that would allow drugs, sex trafficking, and fuel the already rampant opioid epidemic it would largely be contained to Rockingham county. Don’t lie to these folks and tell them we would face the brunt of this problem, because we won’t we would take all the airport traffic and all the hotel traffic and all the shopping revenue and all the entertainment revenue and all the and it would allow for us to further urbanize summerfield for its eventual takeover. Their dream is a massive casino area stretching from Greensboro to Danville and this is the first piece. Thankyou speaker you just made us a Southeastern superpower!
So your goal is to “urbanize Summerfield for its eventual takeover” ?
Who are the people who you expect will be taking over, BlackCity?
And we all know how well Greensboro/Guilford County services are able to handle the current crime situation. So we’re adding even more and possibly worse?
We have to use the term “illegal” loosely here because the legislation that allows casinos to exist on reservations in NC at all, is dangerously close to the same legislation that tried to dry up all of those fish games and the poker machines. I was working for a company that repaired and supplied these machines when the legislation went through. It’s no accident. tl;dr it’s (basically) legal. And the state benefited financially from this move. A rose by any other name is still the same.
The NC Assembly members who support casinos are members who want more tax money to waste on programs that keep the members in office. Introducing casinos to NC (other than the ones that exist in Cherokee) is such a bad idea on so many levels. Casinos should be voted on by the NC electorate not voted on in Raleigh. Rockingham electorate should continue their fight against the rezoning of the property. Voters everywhere should pay close attention to their local politicians. They are no different than the Raleigh and Washington DC politicians. None of them are to be trusted.
Well if they are going to build it, build it in Greensboro. Urban cities tend to welcome this kind of thing, not folks who live in the cow pastures.
Bring it on, and the sooner the better. It will be good for the state and the economy.
The casino will be built outside Guilford County for the same reason the Toyota battery plant is being built in Randolph County, to avoid Guilford County taxes but reap the benefits of being near the larger population centers. A Casino built off 220 in Rockingham County will attract Forsyth and Guilford County residents.
The more casinos that are put up dilutes the revenues for all. With Danville and this, why travel to Cherokee? Maybe that is the point, trying to dilute the Western NC casino funding. But with Danville, is the population enough to maintain business?
Just remember, all the glitter and glitz is built by losers.