After having passed committee earlier this week, Ottawa City Council on Wednesday, August 28 voted 17-6 in favour of a motion to make the Rideau Carleton Raceway the only possible location in the area for expansion of casino gaming.
A report by the CBC has quoted Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson as saying, "Many residents across the city have told me and other members of council that we should simply leave the slots where they currently are."
Mayor Watson was also quoted as saying, "There's no such thing as a consensus view on this issue. We could spend another thousand hours debating this issue and we would not have greater agreement."
Ottawa City Council's vote on the polarizing issue comes days after the Province of Ontario let Watson know that it would not allow two gaming zones for the Ottawa area in order to maintain slot-machine gaming at the raceway.
As the CBC report explains, the city also placed restrictions on whatever gaming expansion could possibly come to Rideau.
To view the list of restrictions and to read the CBC article in its entirety, click here.
(With files from the CBC)
It's a start in the right
It's a start in the right direction. Common sense prevails in Ottawa.
Nice to see the slots stay at
Nice to see the slots stay at RCR or is it.....
Even with this decision, it does not allow for any other revenues or percentage to be injected in the horse racing Industry. The purses , as far as I know, is not going to increase leaving the Industry, in Ottawa, in a very bad place like any other B track in Ontario.
Again with those small purses, the owners or investors are running away from the game, which leaves the owner slash trainer to pick up the pieces until they can no longer afford to. You will see the real impact at the auction at Flamboro and Harrisburg. The Ontario yearlings will be sold for one fifth of the price leaving the breeders with no other option but to move to the states, like a lot of the trainer and drivers have been doing this year.....
If you think the politicians or panel does not know this impact you are kidding yourself.....they want to horse Industry to disappear but at a slower pace so there is no disruptions from anyone....and the horsemen are not reacting enough so the process continues.....Approx. 5 years and no more racing in Ontario or it will look like Trois Rivieres in Quebec, where only trainers can own horses so the breeding Industry will never be strong.
Sad times.....The states is now the place to go with a structure they copied from us to see them having the greatest racing industry in the world....our government is so grady, they are in the business ....TO MAKE MONEY!!!! not helping people anymore.
While it was a "messy"
While it was a "messy" process, I commend City Council for standing by their long term and successful partnership with Rideau Carleton Raceway.