The Canadian Sportsman assembled a special 24-page pullout section of their magazine called Fight For Our Future documenting the stories of real people
impacted by the cancellation of Ontario's slots-at-racetracks program.
Standardbred Canada is asking readers to get this PDF in the hands of as many politicians, bureaucrats and people of influence as possible.
The link to the PDF is available here.
Fully three quarters of Ontarians say they approve of the 'Slots at the Racetrack' program (74%), and two-thirds approve of the specific terms of the deal OLG currently has with Ontario's horse racing tracks (61%) according to a new survey conducted by Forum Research on behalf of the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association.
The vast majority say it is important that the 60,000 jobs connected to Ontario's racing and breeding industry stay in the province (84%), and close to one third say it is "extremely important" (31%).
Most feel that the 20% of slot revenues the tracks receive is the right percentage (43%), although many think it is too low (30%).
Three quarters of Ontarians (77%) say it is important that the jobs and revenues created by 'Slots at the Racetrack' be maintained, and close to one quarter say it is "extremely important" (22%).
The majority do not approve of the provincial government building more casinos (58%) and a similar proportion disapprove of a casino being built in their town (57%).
One half approve of gaming tables at racetracks (50%), and the largest group thinks the best plan for OLG is to leave slots at the racetracks and refrain from building new resort casinos. Only a small minority opt for removing slots from racetracks, either to new casinos (8%) or to purpose built slot facilities (5%).
When asked where slots should ideally be located, two thirds say "at racetracks, where they are now" (62%).