WB Ent fears gambling resort in neighboring area
May 7, 2013 9:51:42 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on May 7, 2013 9:51:42 GMT -5
Is this the future that racing created by relying on casino dollars instead of working for improvement within the racing industry? Was it inevitable?
Toronto casino: Woodbine Entertainment fears gambling resort in neighbouring 905
Race track operator mum on downtown Toronto casino debate but doesn’t like alternatives.
While officially neutral on a downtown Toronto casino, Woodbine says a gambling resort at any of the stated alternatives could endanger both the race track and Ontario’s horse racing industry.
Nick Eaves, chief executive of Woodbine Entertainment, made the comments Monday to the Star’s editorial board.
The not-for-profit body that operates the race track — with the help of revenue from 3,000 slot machines — is lobbying Toronto council to support expansion to a full casino with table games.
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. says there will be a casino in the “C2 gaming zone” — an arrowhead-shaped area that includes Woodbine in northwest Etobicoke and bits of Mississauga, Brampton and Vaughan.
Another privately operated casino resort will be built in the C1 zone that includes downtown Toronto, Mississauga’s waterfront and parts of Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan.
Eaves said the “survival” of Woodbine, which employs 7,500 people including 5,000 at the Rexdale site, hinges on having a casino. With slots alone, it can’t compete with gambling sites to open across Ontario, he added.
“Our greatest fear and our greatest threat, and frankly the city’s greatest threat, is that a casino will get built in Vaughan or Markham or Mississauga or Brampton or one of those municipalities,” Eaves said.
“If that were to happen and Woodbine wasn’t able to expand (to a full casino), we’re . . . very fearful for what that would mean to our business.”
But even a Woodbine casino wouldn’t guarantee sustainability for the track, or the racing and breeding industry that depends on it, if the province okays another casino in a neighbouring 905-belt community, Eaves said.
That would trigger “cannibalistic” fighting for the same regional gamblers and “compromise the operations at Woodbine further and put at greater risk the sustainability of horse racing,” he added.
Jane Holmes, Woodbine’s vice-president of corporate affairs, told the editorial board: “That decision on downtown (Toronto) — that’s for the city to decide. We have no voice in it, no say in it.”
But if Toronto slams the door shut on a waterfront-area site, Woodbine will lobby against a casino in nearby Vaughan, Markham and maybe south Mississauga, she said, noting talk of a casino at Highways 400 and 7.
“That’s 10 minutes away from our current site.”
Premier Kathleen Wynne has backed away from the Liberal government’s previous vow to end the slots-at-racetrack program that pumped $345 million per year into the industry.
But Eaves said Woodbine, which announced more than 100 layoffs in February, is waiting to learn details behind Wynne’s pledge that racing and breeding will be integrated into Ontario’s revamped gambling strategy.
www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/05/06/toronto_casino_woodbine_entertainment_fears_gambling_resort_in_neighbouring_905.html
Toronto casino: Woodbine Entertainment fears gambling resort in neighbouring 905
Race track operator mum on downtown Toronto casino debate but doesn’t like alternatives.
While officially neutral on a downtown Toronto casino, Woodbine says a gambling resort at any of the stated alternatives could endanger both the race track and Ontario’s horse racing industry.
Nick Eaves, chief executive of Woodbine Entertainment, made the comments Monday to the Star’s editorial board.
The not-for-profit body that operates the race track — with the help of revenue from 3,000 slot machines — is lobbying Toronto council to support expansion to a full casino with table games.
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. says there will be a casino in the “C2 gaming zone” — an arrowhead-shaped area that includes Woodbine in northwest Etobicoke and bits of Mississauga, Brampton and Vaughan.
Another privately operated casino resort will be built in the C1 zone that includes downtown Toronto, Mississauga’s waterfront and parts of Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan.
Eaves said the “survival” of Woodbine, which employs 7,500 people including 5,000 at the Rexdale site, hinges on having a casino. With slots alone, it can’t compete with gambling sites to open across Ontario, he added.
“Our greatest fear and our greatest threat, and frankly the city’s greatest threat, is that a casino will get built in Vaughan or Markham or Mississauga or Brampton or one of those municipalities,” Eaves said.
“If that were to happen and Woodbine wasn’t able to expand (to a full casino), we’re . . . very fearful for what that would mean to our business.”
But even a Woodbine casino wouldn’t guarantee sustainability for the track, or the racing and breeding industry that depends on it, if the province okays another casino in a neighbouring 905-belt community, Eaves said.
That would trigger “cannibalistic” fighting for the same regional gamblers and “compromise the operations at Woodbine further and put at greater risk the sustainability of horse racing,” he added.
Jane Holmes, Woodbine’s vice-president of corporate affairs, told the editorial board: “That decision on downtown (Toronto) — that’s for the city to decide. We have no voice in it, no say in it.”
But if Toronto slams the door shut on a waterfront-area site, Woodbine will lobby against a casino in nearby Vaughan, Markham and maybe south Mississauga, she said, noting talk of a casino at Highways 400 and 7.
“That’s 10 minutes away from our current site.”
Premier Kathleen Wynne has backed away from the Liberal government’s previous vow to end the slots-at-racetrack program that pumped $345 million per year into the industry.
But Eaves said Woodbine, which announced more than 100 layoffs in February, is waiting to learn details behind Wynne’s pledge that racing and breeding will be integrated into Ontario’s revamped gambling strategy.
www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/05/06/toronto_casino_woodbine_entertainment_fears_gambling_resort_in_neighbouring_905.html