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Follow us!BIG IDEA: A casino on the waterfront, says Mammoliti
- Posted on: March 24, 2010
- Submitted by: votetoronto2010 staff
Who: Giorgio Mammoliti
His idea: Build a casino in Toronto to help solve our budget problems
By now it’s clear that Toronto has a bad case of the financial woes. But mayoral candidate and current City Councillor for Ward 7 York West, Giorgio Mammoliti, has an idea that can turn people’s pupils to $$ signs: a casino on Toronto’s waterfront.
Though he has been vague on the details of his casino plan, Mr. Mammoliti wants City Council to study the casino idea, debate its merits, start scouting for locations and, as he told Newstalk 1010’s John Moore, “figure out how much money we can get from it as well, and relieve the taxpayer.”
Hey, it has worked before. Back in the 1990s, when provincial governments across the country were strapped for cash and facing tax-weary voters, casinos emerged as a panacea. Within less than a decade, the glittery gambling houses that were once the exclusive purview of Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Monaco were suddenly scattered across the True North. There are now 66 government operated casinos across Canada. Ontario’s 10 casinos generate a total of more than $1.8 billion in revenue for Queen’s Park.
Alas, both Mr. Mammoliti and the taxpayer may be in for a disappointment when it comes to financial relief. Studies show that casinos are an important part of any city’s tourism infrastructure – the kind of attraction that can encourage visitors to plan to stay an extra couple of days – and that they generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs. What casinos don’t do, at least in Ontario, is generate oodles of tax money for the city’s treasury.
According to the latest Annual Report of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, the City of Niagara Falls receives $2.6 million in direct annual revenues from Fallsview Casino Resort under a written agreement with the casino’s owner, the government of Ontario. Windsor gets the same amount from its casino. And since that’s the deal Queen’s Park has with other casino-hosting municipalities, that’s likely what they’ll be willing to pay Toronto.
Unfortunately for Toronto, $2.6 million is literally pocket change: it is just slightly larger than the total of all 44 city councillors’ $53,100 expense accounts. So if Toronto is going to get more than that, it will depend on Mr. Mammoliti’s negotiating skills and on Queen’s Park’s eagerness to locate a casino in Toronto. Given the size of the provincial deficit, it’s conceivable that one day the province will be desperate enough for the revenue from a waterfront casino that they’ll be willing to sweeten the deal for Toronto.
The one thing that would be off the table in any negotiations, however, is an ownership stake. Under the current terms of the law, only Queen’s Park can own a casino in Ontario.
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[...] reports the Star. This is the same guy who suggested a citywide curfew for young people and opening a Las Vegas–style casino on the waterfront. Does he think Torontonians are talking about his lead in the polls, [...]
Casinos and other band-aid revenue generators are often proposed when the need for belt-tightening appears. Unfortunately, they’re the perfect example of a Faustian bargain – that extra cash (which, as this summary notes, will only be a drop in the city’s financial bucket) comes with a social cost. Anyone who has ever played the classic city-building simulation game SimCity will know that the option of building a casino only appears in the game when you’ve made major financial mistakes and are in desperate need for cash at any cost. Building one gives you a boost in cash flow, but causes a number of other problems that you then have to clean up. I think that the game’s designers’ presentation of casinos perfectly captures the trouble with them – they’re a quick and incomplete fix with lots of downsides. Sorry Mr. Mammolitti but I give this one thumb’s down.