New casino?

[realcity]

You'll see the YES! signs on Thursday at the City Hall forum

[realcity]

CHML poll is 62% to 32% in favour of a casino.

[SteelTown]

Hard Rock to be partner in Mercanti casino

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...ercanti-casino

The company behind the popular Hard Rock Cafe is partnering with the Mercanti family to develop a casino in Hamilton’s downtown.

The Hamilton Spectator has learned Orlando-based Hard Rock International will be part of the well-known family’s project to be formally unveiled Feb. 6 to city councillors.

While well-known for its rock and roll café establishments, the company is also in the hotel and casino business. It announced Jan. 13 a Hard Rock Hotel and Casino redevelopment project on the site of the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Mass.

It operates casinos in Biloxi, Mississippi; Hollywood, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Macau, China; Tamp, Florida; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Singapore.

P.J. Mercanti, the face of the casino project, could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. A spokesperson for Hard Rock could also not be reached.

Patriarch Peter Mercanti declined comment when approached by a Spectator reporter at a casino town hall meeting in Waterdown Wednesday night.

The Mercanti family operates the Carmen’s Banquet Centre and hotel on the east Mountain. They are set to takeover operation of the Hamilton Convention Centre this spring.

YourHamiltonBiz.com reported Wednesday the project calls for a 700,000-square-foot, $250 million complex. It said the casino would have up to 1,200 slot machines and table games and could generate up to $200 million in revenue each year.

The website also said it would include a 325 hotel rooms and 125 condominium units.

There is also mention of the facility housing the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the CFL Hall of Fame.

P.J. Mercanit told councillors this week the presentation to councillors is “definitely going to make as big a splash as possible” and that “the majority of Hamiltonians will also be delighted, as well.”

The delegation request stated the facility could include a hotel, gaming, a restaurant, night life, live shows, luxury retail and a museum.

“I would not be supportive of a stand-alone gaming facility,” Mercanti said. “The conversation will change from casino to entertainment destination. And that’s an important message that we plan to communicate. This is about creating an entertainment zone.”

[thistleclub]

So much for the public awareness campaign and its sequel...

OLG: The bingo game is changing
(Hamilton Spectator, Joan Walters, Jan 16 2013)

A new front for public debate on gambling in Hamilton has opened with an offer to introduce “personal play electronic games” to the city’s charitable bingo halls.

The Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp. will meet with city staff Feb. 1 to discuss putting the high-tech devices into at least the Delta Bingo Centre, which appears on the OLG’s list of bingo operators in almost 30 communities interested in the plan.

Municipalities decide whether the technology is permitted. Some critics liken the e-bingo and electronic break-open-ticket devices to slot machines but the OLG says only slots have computer-driven random number generators.

The machines are “simply electronic forms of the paper games offered in bingo centres today, but with more entertaining and interactive graphics,” it says.

Councillor Judi Partridge, who was not aware of the February meeting, or the plan to upgrade equipment at bingo halls here, said she has significant concerns.

[Jon Dalton]

Originally Posted by realcity

CHML poll is 62% to 32% in favour of a casino.

Surprised it's only 62% given CHML's audience is mostly people in favour of screwing over the downtown in any way possible.

If Raise the Hammer had a casino poll, I'm sure the results would be just as predictable.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

Surprised it's only 62% given CHML's audience is mostly people in favour of screwing over the downtown in any way possible.

If Raise the Hammer had a casino poll, I'm sure the results would be just as predictable.

But Raise the retard er Hammer has a dozen people who post over and over under multiple socks. At least with CHML they have a few thousand listeners who are more likely to represent a wider range of views.

[bornagainbiking]

I am inclined to support a decision for a casino downtown.
The down town is fairly busy during the day but quite dead after supper. So what a waste of space.
Downtown has the hotels, convention centre, Copps, Jackson Square and City centre. There is a Giant empty hotel in the middle of the city that has shown no movement in years.
Why not. It would be an extra draw. So we would have Hess Street to Augusta to provide some other dining options.
Even James North is on the rise.
Imagine you can get there by bus, train and even bike. Out in the sticks does have free parking but you have to drive there or bus the seniors.
There will be a medical center soon so you can get in a game of bingo after your Doctors appt.
I am not a fan nor participate in gambling but if someone does or has that as a form of entertainment it should be available. It does mean jobs. And for all the people worried about addictions, just go to the mall and watch the kiosk with the scratch tickets or Nevada peelers. Or the Casino buses for Rama and Niagara from Lime Ridge or East gate. The bus loads from Toronto daily to Niagara or the flights to Vegasor buses to Atlantic city.
Put some life into our downtown and fill the hotels as use it or lose it.
Casinos do bring in good entertainment so that would be a benefit for us locals. Instead of traveling to Niagara.
Really what are the cons that are not out there already in Flamborough.
Please don't do that Nanny state thing about out of sight out of mind. Like cover up the smokes in the corner stores. Also a crap argument as this service or vice is already available and is a huge cash cow.

[SteelTown]

So doing a total rough estimate math....

1200 slots being proposed
801 slots at Flamboro Downs - City gets roughly $4.4 million. So that's about $5,493.13 per slot.

City could get $6,591,760.03 per year from the proposed casino, an extra $2.2 million a year.

[drpgq]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

So doing a total rough estimate math....

1200 slots being proposed
801 slots at Flamboro Downs - City gets roughly $4.4 million. So that's about $5,493.13 per slot.

City could get $6,591,760.03 per year from the proposed casino, an extra $2.2 million a year.

There's no guarantees though and with OLG desperately trying to increase revenues any way they can across the province, something's got to give and somebody's going to end up disapponted.

[drpgq]

Originally Posted by realcity

CHML poll is 62% to 32% in favour of a casino.

CHML swings incredibly crotchety of a certain type. Last time we had a referendum it lost.

[oldcoote]

I like to gamble, but this isn't Vegas.

This is Halifax or Windsor, at best.

You don't plop a casino in the middle of a neighbourhood with generational poverty and welfare and expect it to improve. It's backward thinking.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by oldcoote

I like to gamble, but this isn't Vegas.

This is Halifax or Windsor, at best.

You don't plop a casino in the middle of a neighbourhood with generational poverty and welfare and expect it to improve. It's backward thinking.

Downtown is not supposed to be a neighbourhood, it is supposed to be the central business district. That means entertainment as well as all the other usual functions of a downtown. A casino is entertainment.

[movingtohamilton]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

Downtown is not supposed to be a neighbourhood, it is supposed to be the central business district...

Tell that to the people who live in the thriving neighbourhoods of downtown Toronto!

[mattgrande]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

Downtown is not supposed to be a neighbourhood, it is supposed to be the central business district. That means entertainment as well as all the other usual functions of a downtown. A casino is entertainment.

That's all well and good to say, but the fact of the matter is people do live in Downtown Hamilton, and they always have. There are apartments right in the core, and single family homes within a five minute walk of King & James.

[oldcoote]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

Downtown is not supposed to be a neighbourhood, it is supposed to be the central business district. That means entertainment as well as all the other usual functions of a downtown. A casino is entertainment.

Thriving downtowns have a significant residential component. A casino will not enhance that.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by movingtohamilton

Tell that to the people who live in the thriving neighbourhoods of downtown Toronto!

Those people in downtown Toronto are there because of the businesses and entertainment available to them in the downtown. That's one thing Toronto gets right, business in the downtown is the priority, not residential. If a resident in downtown Toronto calls to complain about noise they would get laughed at. In this city the authorities go after the business making the noise.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by oldcoote

Thriving downtowns have a significant residential component. A casino will not enhance that.

I'll agree that having some residential is good. But the fact is the downtown is supposed to be a centre of commerce first and foremost. That commerce isn't supposed to necessarily enhance the residential experience. Without a commercial and entertainment centre we cease being a city and become a suburb.

[movingtohamilton]

Toronto has the live-work-play package working, if imperfectly. There was never a wholesale flight to the 'burbs years ago, like many American cities experienced, (and Hamilton too). Except for the absolute core of the financial district, Toronto streets are vibrant after dark. St. Lawrence, Corktown, The Annex, Queen West, Kensington are all thriving neighbourhoods to name just a few.

Most of Toronto's downtown residential neighbourhoods are within the central business district, and have been there for decades and decades. At this point, infrastructure is stressed in the heart of Toronto due to the impact of all the new condo buildings.

Contrast all of the above with Hamilton. How are things in Wards 1, 2, 3? Will a casino help or hinder those wards?

This city has so much potential for live-work-play, and has so little imagination and dynamism from its leaders.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

But Raise the retard er Hammer has a dozen people who post over and over under multiple socks. At least with CHML they have a few thousand listeners who are more likely to represent a wider range of views.

Ha ha...tell me you don't work for the City, man. That comment is quite anti-social, even for you.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by movingtohamilton

Toronto has the live-work-play package working, if imperfectly. There was never a wholesale flight to the 'burbs years ago, like many American cities experienced, (and Hamilton too). Except for the absolute core of the financial district, Toronto streets are vibrant after dark. St. Lawrence, Corktown, The Annex, Queen West, Kensington are all thriving neighbourhoods to name just a few.

Most of Toronto's downtown residential neighbourhoods are within the central business district, and have been there for decades and decades. At this point, infrastructure is stressed in the heart of Toronto due to the impact of all the new condo buildings.

Contrast all of the above with Hamilton. How are things in Wards 1, 2, 3? Will a casino help or hinder those wards?

This city has so much potential for live-work-play, and has so little imagination and dynamism from its leaders.

Yet those leaders are democratically elected and re elected every election. They must be doing something right. The majority of those people are elected with more than 50% of the vote which is unprecedented in elections with multiple candidates. They are doing exactly what the majority wants whether you or I agree with what they do or not and thats how a democracy works.