As one person commented earlier;How much is the cost of the building of new casinos to be built by the On govn't in the next two years? What are the profits from the individual casinos (Windsor,Fort Erie,and Sarnia) in the last year? What are the "proposed revenues" from the new ones?Also,as of now there are thousands of people working ,but will be out of work,come April.So then these people will be costing the taxpayers extra money in EI payments.On top of this,moneys going to communities, help to charities will cease to exist,and many homes will be lost by these workers,because of no work for them.And last but not least,the harness racing association,breeders,farmers selling feed,straw,hay to the horse farms,workers at the farms,grooming,feeding,training,caring,etc.,will be out of work,only to add the growing unemployment numbers,another loss,the entertainment value of patrons at these tracks that will be eliminated.To the OLG,what does it say about the OLG as well as the Liberals,who did not sit down with these casinos to discuss possible solutions for the industry,and to top it off,to tell the employees to show up for a meeting re closure of the casinos.Talk about leading people to virtual slaughter.This decision has to be reversed.Oh,one more thing,what is the OLG and the Liberals going to get for these locations?Nothing!!!

Face time here with these comments doesen't get to the 'joe' on the Street ,why a full media blitz hasent been inniated is bizarre....take some percentages now not next week from the purse structure and retain the best lobbyist and such to go forward! the budget is out in a very short time! What else has to happen for people to get the general public informed? we are ,THERE NOT!

Liberal popularity is not falling, it has fell, period.

I was not one of those Ontarians polled, so I can only be ADDED after-the-fact to that 69%.
I have sent emails this week to Mr. McGuinty,Mr. Duncan, Mr.Hudak and my elected MPP in my riding, in support of the horse racing industry. Unfortunately, this is not an issue that can wait for the next election to have everyone's opinion reflected at the polls as by that time the damage will already be done! The time is NOW for our voices to be heard. We all need to send our voices to the legislature through our MPP's so this 'breach of trust budget' doesn't get passed!

I thought government was to be fair in the way they run the province. Not just looking out for the big urban centers. Some of the city counselers coming out on a feeding frenzy hoping for a new casino in there area.They are robbing other parts of ontario to help pay for there own infrustucture while more and more aggressively expanding gambling. Is this what government has come to. Pitting parts of ontario against each other and preying on the weak.

There is definitely a deal that has been struck by the Liberals with a potential casino developer, likely one from the US. It is all so reminiscent of the Nova Scotia casino development agreement where the developer insisted on a clause that prevented the development of competition, specifically a new track in Halifax. The proposal for the new track already on the table was promptly scuttled. The casino in Sydney also contributed to the demise of the Sydney track.

In order to sell the existing border casinos to their potentail deficit saver the Liberals would first have to close the competition next door in Fort Erie, Windsor and Hiawatha. That gives them some cash to play with from a sale next year when these facilities are closed and they are waiting for the new Casinos to be built. These new ones will also result in track closures in the same general area and so the dominoes will begin to fall leading to ultimate elimination of competition from racetrack slots and a virtual monopoly for the developer, other than for the Native casinos.

Remember that part of the OLG strategy is renewed emphasis on oversight and regulation. They are not planning to run these new facilities themselves or even pay for them and most surely already know who is.

Underhanded, deceiving, treacherous - what else can we call this approach ?

All of us in racing can remember back when the triactor was introduced. It was without a doubt the most popular wager on the race card so management turned around and said, why not two or three triactors? The wager on one triactor race a night is unbelievable so lets add more. Now we all know what happened to that analogy don't we. The bottom line is there are only so many discretianary dollars to go around and that is it. Adding more avenues to wager is not going to get you more dollars. It will get a lot of corner stores robbed and workers assaulted and threatened.
This plan will not work. It is put together by people who do not understand gambling at all. All the plan does is it allows the Liberals to manipulate voters by telling them we can balance our budgets with this extra money from the gambling revenues we can attain by not giving it to the horsemen. Only a fool would make such a comment.
No Province will ever get their budget woes fixed on gambling revenues. The amount being spent nightly on bingos and online poker and casinos would stagger the human mind. Offshore wagering on Racing sees millions wagered every week all because of rebates. What needs to be done is for Ontario to allow the ontrack casino's the opportunity to run the same type of operations as the off shore wagering sites currently do. The amount of money that would come in from this new area would be mind boggling.
Major casino's would not like that plan one bit though would they? What site got to leave its doors open in Windsor this week? It was a major casino with the ability to make donations to whatever political party they choose to.
Like I said, this is nothing but Liberal propaganda to get another election win from downtown Toronto and to heck with the outlining areas. Can you imagine around 70% of the population thinks the Liberal plan stinks and the Race Tracks and horsemen associations have not even started an advertising blitz of their own yet.

I'm sick & tired of irresponsible government
Nothing will happen in the short term as long as the Liberals are in power.
We the people can change that at election time.
Remember to exercise your right to vote.
That is until they take that right away from us as well.

Yesterday I sent another email to both Liz Sandals and Frank Valeriote, which is basically all I can do. However, the first email I sent was begging them to step up against this as they both represent Guelph where many horsepeople live. My email yesterday was a little more forceful as I told them both that my family and friends would vote for a poor crippled little dog on the corner before we ever voted Liberal again. Be ANGRY people.

This is the situation in Pennsylvania. One major difference, they have had a joint meeting of horsemen and legislators.

The one-day Pennsylvania Horse Conference served as platform for the state’s racehorse owners, breeders, and trainers to tout support from several lawmakers who oppose Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s plan to divert $72 million a year in revenue for purses and breed development to agriculture programs.

The March 14 conference in the state capital of Harrisburg included a rally at the Capitol rotunda and ended with a reception at nearby Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course. Members of the Pennsylvania Equine Coalition and legislators were on hand.

The 2004 law that authorized slot machines at racetracks and standalone casinos was called the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Act. When the first slots began operating in late 2006, 12% of gross revenue from racetrack casinos and 6% from non-track casinos went to horsemen for purses, breed development programs, and pension plans.

Table games were added a few years ago at all casinos, but horsemen get no cut of that revenue.

Several years ago a percentage of purse revenue was taken by lawmakers to pay for other programs; it amounts to $49 million in the next fiscal year. Corbett’s plan would take another $72 from the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Fund.

The Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries are equally affected. Thus far, no money has been taken from the casino owners’ share of gaming revenue.

According to a release from the equine coalition, lawmakers are working to halt further reductions from purse and breeding funds.

“The number one thing we talked about when debating (the slots law) was saving the horse racing industry and protecting the jobs that are part of the horseracing industry—that was my number one objective,” Republican Rep. Gene DiGerolamo said. “We are talking about jobs. The consequences of taking this money away from the industry would be disastrous. We want to make sure the horse racing industry in Pennsylvania is vibrant.”

“The people who have invested in the equine industry expected us to deliver on the promises we made when we passed (the slots law),” Republican Rep. Chris Ross said. “When we change the rules and introduce uncertainty, businesses pull out and jobs are lost. We need to make this fund whole.

“We need to make sure we have a good, healthy industry that can compete successfully with New York, Maryland, Delaware, and other states that are eager to take our breeders and our horse racing away from us.”

“This is not a surplus,” Democratic Rep. Tim Solobay said. “This is a fund that grows to be used during the course of the summer on purses when all of the tracks are up and operating. If this money goes away, it is going to devastate an industry, an industry that has earned national and world recognition.”

In the roughly five years Pennsylvania has had casinos, racing has banked more than $1.1 billion, including purses, breed development, and horsemen’s pension plans. The state has received more than $3.1 billion, and casino owners have collected more than $4.2 billion, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Casino and racetrack owners have been silent on the Corbett plan.

Sal DeBunda, president of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which is based at Parx Racing & Casino, likened Corbett’s move to decreasing tax benefits in business enterprise zones by 50% without warning. He said the outcry from business leaders in the state would be enormous.

“The Race Horse Development Fund represented a commitment by state government—a commitment that breeders’ incentives and purses would be at certain levels, which attracted individuals and businesses to Pennsylvania as a place to breed horses, purchase farms, and race horses.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, under which racing regulation falls, has said the value of the equine industry since gaming was added jumped 380% to $3 billion. A study claims the number of industry-related jobs tops 41,000.

The equine coalition has six member organizations, none of which are racetracks.

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Read more: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/68112/pa-lawmakers-join…

Wanted to forward and post a copy of an e-mail we just received from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, in support of Ontario Horse Racing and the Slots at Racetracks program.

Maybe we could get this out to the newspapers.......... For more information you can check out the OFA website - www.ofa.on.ca/media/news/Betting-on-the-wrong-horse

Betting on the wrong horse with OLG? (2012)

By Mark Wales, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) urges our provincial government to step back and take a serious look at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s (OLG) proposal to end the Slots at Racetracks program. The recommendation to end the program effective March 31, 2013 was recently adopted by the Ontario government in an effort to improve provincial gaming revenues.

The OLG made the recommendation as part of its modernization plan, an effort to increase revenues. The plan suggests the casino and slot facility modernization and the end of the Slots at Racetracks funding. The result of the proposed plan is expected to yield an additional $740 million in annual revenue to the province by 2017. Ironically, the OLG included at statement in their own strategic plan that says, “Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.”

In other words, the proposed modernization plan is a gamble. And a very risky gamble for our province to be taking because the OLG does not appear to consider, in any way, the potential cost of these proposed changes – they are only looking at the possible increase in revenue. The OLG is gambling and the stakes are Ontario’s horse racing industry, rural communities and thousands of small businesses.

The result of OLG’s decision could see the end of racetracks in Ontario, causing the dissolution of a vibrant horseracing and breeding industry. And along with it, the province will lose approximately $2 billion in economic activity, more than 30,000 full-time jobs and valuable businesses that directly support Ontario’s agricultural infrastructure.

It appears OLG has failed to consider the impact their decision will have on Ontario’s horseracing industry and the jobs it sustains across Ontario. The industry currently works with OLG in a mutually beneficial relationship, the Slots at Racetracks program – a revenue sharing agreement. The racing industry is OLG’s most profitable partner. Can OLG actually increase revenues while losing its best partner?

OFA strongly urges the province and the OLG to start working with the Ontario horseracing industry to build on the productive and profitable relationship they have already enjoyed over the past decade. This partnership can be improved for mutual benefit and will continue to demonstrate its significant and valuable contribution to the Ontario economy and our rural communities.

We simply can’t afford to lose Ontario’s horseracing industry on an OLG long shot.

Bye, Bye, Norman. Guess Timmy boy will be booting you out of Queens Park.
I'm really glad!!!

This liberal government has no idea on how to run a province. Casino's are not a solution. Casino's will only destroy the economy of a city,let alone, family's. Never, should a Casino
be opened in the middle of a city. I hope the people and city officials of Toronto will come to their senses and say "NO" to a Casino.

Sounds great and looks good on them but don't let up the pressure. Keep the public informed and don't be afraid to offer your Liberal member an opportunity to reduce the debt by cleaning out the barns. They sure know how to shoot it but can they shovel it?

The Liberals will fight this with all they can muster up.

Letter sent to Premier earlier today

Dear Sir:

I'm sure you are well aware of the poll published in today's Toronto Star showing that 69% of Ontarians oppose the expansion of casinos and slots in Ontario.

You may recall Ontarians felt the same way when slots were first introduced in Ontario 15 years ago -- and that is why they ended up being housed at existing gambling facilities -- RACETRACKS.

Combine this poll reality, with another reality -- ending the existing slots/racetrack program puts 60,000 jobs in jeopardy -- and you are creating a true DOUBLE WHAMMY.

The Liberals crass anti-racetrack ads were so simplistic and tainted that the Toronto media jumped on them immediately. Now public opinion is coming full circle and seeing this charade for what it is.

The OLG's strategy to push full blown casinos seems flawed at best. Less than 25% of the OLG revenue comes from casinos, and the majority of that revenue is likely from slots housed at those casinos. Did your OLG experts look at the US casino havens? Atlantic City and Las Vegas are in a free fall. In fact, US casino companies have instead turned to a new venue -- RACETRACK SLOTS. A number of major US casino companies already have purchased racetracks, and more are in the process of building them.

In light of the new Liberal gambling proposals, the Star poll also shows a reversal of fortunes in the overall polling numbers. The Conservatives are now at 40% support, Liberals are at 28%, and NDP at 23%.

I might be a bit naive, but why would any government (let alone one in a minority situation) want to offer up such an easy lightning rod of discontent -- Kill 60,000 agricultural jobs then try and recoup some of those losses by introducing localized gambling.

Wouldn't now be a good time to reconsider your position?

Sincerely,
Cam McKnight,

Damn Right. The people of Ontario WILL support us - we just have to get it in front of their faces.

The way it's going the only place that's going to have any harness racing will be Woodbine if the Ontario liberals get their way. It doesn't make sense to put so many people out of work. When the next election comes around make sure to vote for the party that's against this crap.