Ontario’s Lottery and Gaming Corporation is getting ready to submit a proposal to allow for a new casino to be setup within the south Georgian Bay central gambling venue. As such, they are now consider a number of operators, as many as five, to take on the job of running the casino. The operator would be in charge of running Georgian Downs, Casino Rama, and the new casino that the OLG is planning on putting down in Collingwood or Wasaga Beach.
Tony Bitonti, who works as the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation Public Relations Senior Manager, has come out to state that this contract is going to be the last request in the proposal for the group’s modernization strategy. Each bundle plan that the group has released has received a lot of interest from operators who are looking to pick up more venues. In order to be considered for a casino bundle, operators are required to contact the OLG and speak about what their goals and plans would be for the venues and local areas. This helps the group determine which operator proposal is going to be the best fit and then make a decision based off of that information. The various aspects include the financial goals of the operation, the technical side of modernizing games and bring the casinos up to speed, and the overall casino feel and theme that customers would expect.
Operators that are chosen for a bundle will have the opportunity to have some say in the contract before it gets drafted for signing. These contracts are going to be designed as a 20 to 25 year agreement, and so it’s essential that the right choice is made for each area. For this particular bundle deal, the operator that gets selected is going to be given the option of choosing the Collingwood location or the Wasaga Beach area. This gives the operator a bit of a voice and an opportunity to express why one location might be a better fit than the other. Before a venue location becomes locked in it will need to be approved by local authoritative bodies.
As presented, the new casino is going to have at least 300 slot machines on the gaming floor. Along with that, it is expected to have somewhere between ten and fifteen table games spread out across the floor as well. When originally planned the casino wasn’t going to include table games, but discussions into the development led to the decision to include them. Wasaga Beach has been open to the idea of hosting the casino since late 2012. On the other hand, Collingwood was not too optimistic about the idea but decided that they would also be willing to host the casino after a few months of thought and discussion. Collingwood only wants the casino if it is going to have a resort and not just be a “slot barn” so that there will be some good motivation for tourism.