Toronto may never get a fully-fledged casino venue, What’s holding it back?
Casinos are a prevalent feature in Canadian culture, most notably due to the nation’s much more liberal approach to gambling venues compared to their neighbours down south. Most major cities have a fully-fledged casino venue, from the privately operated Casino Nova Scotia buildings in Halifax and Sydney to the First Nations-owned Casino Rama here in Ontario.
Even though cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Niagara Falls, Quebec, Vancouver, and Winnipeg host one or many casinos, Toronto is yet to establish its own. Given the tourist appeal of Toronto and its proximity to settlements in the United States, one would assume that Toronto would have a major land-based casino operation, and quite possibly the biggest in the country.
Instead, the city of Toronto looks distinctly unlikely to ever open the doors of a major casino venue within its area, and here’s why:
A saturated Ontario market
Canada has been very open to casino operations across its providences, but it has led to the market becoming saturated. The North American gambling market received a slight shot in the arm this year due to new laws being passed in the states to the south, but in Ontario, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. – who run the land-based gambling operations of the province – projected a net profit contribution drop of 6.8 per cent for 2018/19. Setting up a big and new casino attraction in a city like Toronto would merely draw customers away from the corporation’s 42 existing venues. You can read more about the saturated Ontario market right here…
Ontario Place ruled out as a venue
The highly-anticipated Toronto project to transform Ontario Place is underway and has, this year, asked developers to submit big and bold ideas for the project. However, Ontario’s minister of tourism, culture, and sport, Michael Tibollo, all-but ruled out a casino coming to the new Ontario Place, with condos also not being part of the plans. The project is set to revitalise the waterfront site, and even though casinos have notoriously been able to provide decent cash injections into the local economy, bringing one to Ontario Place has been disapproved of by Torontonians. For more information on the Ontario Place project, go to this site…
Toronto is doing well as it is
As noted above, casinos can provide a welcomed adrenaline shot into a local economy, but Toronto is in a good enough position to not need to attract people to hard-done areas under its jurisdiction. Construction seems to be underway at all times in some part of Toronto, with suburban areas seeing plenty of growth, and so, the city simply doesn’t need the jump-start that many settlements seek when they open a new casino. To read more into why Toronto doesn’t need the economic boost of a casino, continue here…
Are fears a new casino couldn’t attract custom justified?
We mentioned the market is saturated, yet the online sphere has long shown a knack for attracting new and old customers beyond expectation. The online casino market is more lively than ever, with platforms tripping over each other to try and offer players bigger bonuses, more games, and to stand out through the use of innovative new tech being incorporated into games. It is possible that the use of new technologies could work as inspiration for the seemingly saturated land-based market to create stand-out new niches. If virtual reality casino gaming takes off online, it could be used in brick-and-mortar venues as a new experience. If you’re looking to find out more about the extensive Canadian online casino scene and see for yourself how easy it is for players to find hundreds of digital games and bonuses, there are websites where you can read more…
As Ontario is stacked with casino venues, there being plenty of options online, the Ontario Place rejuvenation project being ruled out as a casino suitor, and the city so far holding firm against the temptation to build such a venue, it looks as though Toronto won’t be getting a proper land-based casino anytime soon.
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