Virginia Comedy Club to Become Skill Gaming Casino

Article ByDavid Weir

July 6, 2023

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Posted in: Virginia Gambling News, US Casino News

A man walks into a bar, but it’s now become a skill gaming casino.

That’s the situation at the Sandman Comedy Club in Richmond, Virginia, which closed its doors after just over a year in operation.

The club, located at 401 E. Grace St. near the Capital District, hosted its final show on June 25. However, its owner, Michael Sands (no relation to the casino giant Las Vegas Sands) plans to reopen his venue next month as a skill gaming casino.

Skill gaming casino games use slight tweaks to the traditional slot machine format to get around US state laws on gambling. By asking bettors to identify what could be the winning payline before a spin, the game is given an element of skill not present in your usual casino-style slot games.

Such games were made fully legal during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that status expired in 2021. However, an injunction from a Virginia court kept the legislation alive while the Courts come to a decision on the wider legal battle surrounding it.

“The state opened Pandora’s box to allow Vegas-style casinos to come into the state,” Sands told local media outlet RichmondBizSense.

“Once you do that, it’s hard to tell me that I can’t have legal gambling in my facility.”

Related: The best online casinos in Virginia, reviewed and rated

The Cost of a Laugh

The decision to transition from a comedy club to a casino bar was driven by the high costs associated with running a comedy club.

Sands revealed that in addition to the general overhead of running a restaurant, he was also paying comedians to perform, sharing door sales, and providing the acts’ food and lodging. In 2022, that added up to some $55,000 in extra costs. Eventually, that proved unviable in the long term, pivoting his switch to a casino-style venue.

“Having a comedy club is like having a one-screen movie theater in a small town. If people don’t like the movie, they’re not going to go see it,” Sands said.

The new concept is a bold one, especially considering the rapidly changing gambling laws in the state.

The venue will not be fully stocked with the contentious skill gaming machines. As well as a few “Queen of Virginia” skill gaming slots, The Sandman Casino Bar will feature regulated gambling and traditional skill games.

That means pool tables, dart boards, Virginia lottery-regulated keno machines, and nightly Texas hold’em poker tables.

Big Investments

The state of Virginia has seen a significant loosening of its gambling laws in recent years. Five types of gambling are currently legal in the state, including the Virginia Lottery, horse race betting, sports betting, and charitable gaming.

Then there’s the three new resort casinos, which are considerably more expensive and expansive than Sands’ planned venue.

Currently, one is fully operational. Rivers Casino Portsmouth welcomed its one-millionth customer last week, just five months after launching in February 2023.

The other two licensed casino operators in Virginia, Caesars Entertainment and Hard Rock International, are currently operating temporary venues while they build permanent resorts in Danville and Bristol, respectively.

The Caesars Virginia property is expected to cost more than $650 million to develop. It will have more than 1,300 fully regulated slot games, a Caesars Sportsbook, 500 hotel rooms, and a 2,500-seat concert venue, among other amenities.  The operator’s temporary venue has already posted $11.9 million in revenues for its first two weeks.

The transformation of the Sandman Comedy Club into a casino bar, meanwhile, is a clear example of the impact large gambling operations moving into a state can have.