"I'll tell you what's disappointing: you got Dalton McGuinty's group and Dwight Duncan suggesting that when Windsor Raceway shut down, most of these individuals (customers) would go and spend their money at the Windsor casino. And you can see quite clearly that that's not true at all, and this is just resonating that."
The above quote has come courtesy of newly-elected Local 444 President Dino Chiodo, who has been cited as making the comments in an article by the CBC.
The report states that after having laid off eight employees just a few weeks ago, Caesars Casino Windsor laid off 27 employees on Monday, May 7. Seventeen were full-time employees and 10 were part-timers. All of the workers were members of Local 444.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. recently went through with a highly controversial decision to close the slots gaming area within Windsor Raceway in favour of protecting Caesars Casino Windsor.
After having dropped a bombshell on the Ontario horse racing industry by pulling out of the mutually-beneficial slots-at-racetracks program, the OLG then vaguely announced that it was looking to create 29 'gaming zones' across the province. The OLG has also trumpeted the concept of 'resort casinos' and the possibility of a full-blown casino being erected in downtown Toronto.
According to an official OLG report, in fiscal 2010, the OLG's resort casinos experienced a net loss of $46 million, which was actually better than fiscal 2009, when the resort casinos lost $74 million. The OLG's resort casinos consist of Casino Niagara, Casino Rama, Casino Windsor and Niagara Fallsview Casino.
A poll in March of this year found that 69 per cent of respondents were against the OLG plan to open new gaming facilities in cities like Toronto and Ottawa. In April, the Woodbine Entertainment Group announced that a scientific poll it commissioned found that 51 per cent of Torontonians surveyed supported the idea of a casino at Woodbine Racetrack.