If there is an elected city council anywhere that knows the difference between debate and posturing, it has been keeping it secret. Toronto Council will spend a day on May 21 debating whether Toronto will have a downtown casino. You know ahead of time, that it will be a day of posturing, not enlightenment.
It would save all members of council from looking colossally stupid if they just convened, voted and then spent the day helping out at their local food bank or soup kitchen. There is nothing new they can say on the subject of a casino that they have not already said ad nauseam. They have absolutely no new information. The basic problem is that they are short on facts and long on biases.
And, as is the usual custom, they have been misled by city staff. The list of demands, prepared by staff, that they are supposed to impose on a developer are a joke. No honest developer would ever agree to all those conditions. And they certainly cannot promise the city $100 million a year. A casino is a business. It has to be run as a business. If it is not run as a business, most knowledgeable gamblers would stay away from it.
It would certainly help if Toronto councillors made a field trip to Niagara Falls. This is not to gamble but to just look at three casinos. They are the new Fallsview, the old Casino Niagara and the Seneca Casino on the American side of the river. Frankly, after looking at the three casinos, you would not want Ontario Lottery and Gaming to be responsible for a tattoo parlour. What the councillors would learn is that the casino business works well when it is able to be competitive.
On May 21, Torontonians can at least expect that Woodbine Entertainment will finally get the city nod for some table games and be recognized as a full-fledged casino. A downtown casino is not as good a bet. Not to worry though, Markham Council might not act as stupid and that municipality would be a very profitable location for a casino.
With privately run, casinos at Woodbine, Orillia and Markham, healthy competition between them can be encouraged. They might not be the cash cows demanded by greedy politicians but they might just serve as legal outlets for gambling in this part of our country and serve to reduce the cash outflow to Las Vegas.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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