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OLG Toronto/GTA casino proposal (where to put it?)

Thanos said:
Please clarify? As stated, the Montreal casino is seen as nothing more then a different source of entertainment.



While were at it Mr Holy, let's ban the selling of cigarettes, cigars or any tobacco products. Let's ban the sale of alcohol. Let's also also ban any activity in the TSX or any other stock exchange.

From here on out, not a single Torontonian will be allowed to invest any of his/her moneys in the TSX. (sorry to all those TSX employees, you'll be sorely missed)
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I'm pretty certain he wants to ban automobiles as well as dictate how much energy we are each able to consume.

To be fair, the TSX is not equivalent to a casino. Casino gambling is really a sucker's game. The odds are always stacked against you. There is no skill. Buying and selling stocks, while risky of course, generally rewards the prudent investor.
 
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And who says that the new casino has to be a blight on the city?
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Anybody who isn't puely interested in a cash-grab. Why do you keep trying to convince people it could be some kind of positive addition to the city, when you clearly stated why you want one (which won't save you from your dreaded taxes anyway).

Resisting jumping on that bandwagon shows Toronto at least has some integrity in its city-building vision. Anybody who thinks a casino is some kind of magic pill for subways is clearly delusional as well. What does OLG give municipalities anyway...5%? Assuming a casino even made a profit, this does not translate into enough to do any serious damage to the city's budget.

And let's not count our chickens before they hatch...it's only an OLG report recommending a casino for the Toronto area, which means there might not be one at all, and even if there will be, it may not be in Toronto anyway. John Tory has already stated a casino is not a consideration for Ontario Place.

I don't mind the province running the booze and the gambling...it provides better policing of industries that are best not left in the hands of the private sector...it should not be considered an integral part of provincial revenue. But it has become that...and that's a shame. I'm embarrassed that Ontario relies on exploiting gamblers to provide health care to the citizens of Ontario.
 
Madmax, of course I'm not comparing Niagara Falls NY to Toronto. I'm just saying that, after at least a decade of debating the issue, NF decided to convert their convention center into a casino hoping it would generate income. All it did was keep some of their US dollars home (people stopped crossing the border to gamble in NF Ontario). It has not generated enough income to significantly impact the city. Unless you can attract money from another jurisdiction you just end up with locals spending money at the casino rather than at local theaters, sporting events, restaurants, etc. The pie can only be cut in so many ways, unless the pie gets bigger there is no economic benefit. I can't see a casino in T.O. pulling in tourists from the US. I think it will only leach money from Falls View casino in Niagara Falls Ontario, Casino Rama and Windsor. No new money. Having said that, I wouldn't vote against a casino here but wouldn't vote for one either.
 
There is a general consensus here, I think, that a Casino in Toronto would not generate a whole lot of money for the City, this may well be the case. If it is true then why would we squander a first class location like the CNE or Ontario Place in order to make the Province happy for little gain?

I assume that the Province/OLG pays all of the start up costs and pays the City a few Million dollars annually whether the Casino makes money or not. This is the catalyst Toronto needs to wake up interest in the Portlands and it is free. We have all seen the delightful renderings of a sea of condos and parks covering the Portlands but they aren't going to be built without a kernel that the private sector investors are most definitely not interested in investing in.

How many charter coachs do we see cruising metro for gamblers and whisking them off to casinos hours away at no charge, it seems like hundreds. They would love to shorten that trip to 30 minutes or so, who needs Transit?

Infrastructure will have to be built to enable building anything in the Portlands, not just Casinos.

I have never been to a Casino, not because of moral reasons but because it never seemed to fit my family plans. If a Casino were 20 minutes away I would definitely visit it just for the experience. I am not a gambler except every time Lotto reaches 50 million dollars I buy a ticket but only one and only then.
 
freshcutgrass said:
I don't mind the province running the booze and the gambling...it provides better policing of industries that are best not left in the hands of the private sector...it should not be considered an integral part of provincial revenue. But it has become that...and that's a shame. I'm embarrassed that Ontario relies on exploiting gamblers to provide health care to the citizens of Ontario.
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Yes, all Ontarians should be ashamed for this. Those Canadians in all other provinces are so lucky for having governments that do not act in this manner. So lovely. Oh wait, what the heck am i saying, all other provinces do act this way.
I'm confused, help me out freshgrass.
 
Hey, urbanists, has Atlantic City been breached in this thread? (If any of you have been to Atlantic City, you'll know what I'm getting at. Though it's a bit of a sensationalistic example)
 
I'm confused, help me out freshgrass.
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Expanding casino operations as a method of squeezing out more revenue to underwrite provincial deficits is a bad idea....doesn't matter how many other governments do it.
 
spider said:
....the Casino .... is the catalyst Toronto needs to wake up interest in the Portlands and it is free. We have all seen the delightful renderings of a sea of condos and parks covering the Portlands but they aren't going to be built without a kernel that the private sector investors are most definitely not interested in investing in.
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Did you miss the whole Doug Ford mucking about in the Port Lands fiasco? A Casino is as bad an idea as the ferriswheel idea, certainly on par with the boat-in hotel or the mega-mall.
 
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Hey...it's not like my head will explode if Toronto has a casino. It really isn't a game-changing topic, and I wish our politicians would start investing some energy in more intelligent solutions to problems. Casinos, ferris wheels, mono-rails, giant flagpoles and Island whore houses....yea, we voted in some real winners.
 
Seems like many of you have based your anti-Casino sentiments on the plot line from that Simpsons episode way back when.
 
freshcutgrass said:
I don't mind the province running the booze and the gambling...it provides better policing of industries that are best not left in the hands of the private sector...it should not be considered an integral part of provincial revenue. But it has become that...and that's a shame. I'm embarrassed that Ontario relies on exploiting gamblers to provide health care to the citizens of Ontario.
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So you don't mind the province "running the booze," and reaping huge profit margins at the expense of the consumer? The auditor general criticized the LCBO for making too much money, and earlier this month they increased prices again. Yet, you're ashamed of this exploitation to provide health care? I don't get it.
 
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