After a long amount of wait time on a decision to be made, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation has reported that they have made a selection as to which local government will become the new host of their latest casino facility located in British Columbia. With many areas under consideration, the final choice came down to Greater Victoria. Particular interest was given to governments that seemed to have the highest desire to have the casino hosted in their area.
The exact design of the new casino hasn’t been mapped out yet, but the British Columbia Lottery Corporation has stated that they will construct the facility in a way that will match the market in the Victoria region. It is expected that the current casino that sits in Victoria, the View Royal Casino, will still be the main casino attraction of the area despite the new facility being established.
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation has held discussions in regards to redeveloping the current View Royal Casino in affiliation with the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, and the plans that are set forth for the current casino will directly affect how large the new facility will be and the offerings it will hold.
The decision to build the casino in Victoria came after the British Columbia Lottery Corporation had decided that having a second gaming venue in British Columbia was a marketable operation shortly after their assessment came back positive. The assessment was used to determine how big of a market there was for another venue in the area, and after that there was a second evaluation conducted called the Expression of Interest. This started back in October of 2015 and was used to determine the government desire to have the venue setup in their region. There were six different government locations that were being selected from when determining the interest level of the new operation.
The areas that were considered was Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt Township, Songhees First Nation, and the Esquimalt First Nation. Upon taking all of these areas into consideration, it was narrowed down to the final two spots – Victoria and Saanich. From there, a decision was made based off the economy, geography, demographic location, and community support. Now that a decision has been reached the British Columbia Lottery Corporation will seek to find an operator that will plan out the construction of the new site and build a proposal. Local companies in the Victoria area will be given first consideration, as well as companies in the West Shore communities.
When it comes to establishing a new casino venue in an area, governments in Canada always get input as to whether or not they would like to have the operation in their area. Some regions are against addictive institutions and don’t have supportive communities that would be pleased with it, and there are sometimes economic and commercial reasons that a government might choose to deny it. For those that accept their area for a potential casino, the most common benefits considered are the increase in tourism and job growth.
