Page 6 - Biz X Magazine - June, 2014 Issue

editorial viewpoint patronized the Raceway because they are 8th Annual Biz X Liberals’ Gross Gamble prohibited from gambling on their home turf. Beach Jam Volleyball Tournament Te Auditor General points out that the A Disaster For Region windfall revenues pegged by the overall modernization plan have vastly failed to By Alan Halberstadt materialize since Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa all turned thumbs down on building new super casinos. Meanwhile, Windsor and Essex County are bearing the brunt of these gross gambles. ith the June 12 provincial election the raceway operators, $4 million to Tropea’s Te province is belatedly throwing purse Wupon us, we have heard a lot about horse people, $1.5 million to the City of money and racing dates to the industry, but the incumbent Liberal government’s Windsor and $10.6 million in wages to the most of the gravy is going to the Central many scandals and boondoggles – the 204 people who lost their jobs. Ontario Alliance, representing eight tracks. $1 billion gas plant relocations, E Health, Here’s the kicker. Te province lost In Southwestern Ontario, Leamington is the mushrooming Ontario debt, the Green $19 million a year in slots’ proft, before OLG getting 13 days, Dresden 11 and Hiawatha On The Beach Volleyball Energy Act and corresponding spikes in expenses. And when Windsor Raceway shut in Sarnia 21. A proposal to build a electricity rates. down on August 1 of 2012, ending 47 years $20 million raceway in Lakeshore cannot Tese have all punished taxpayers of operations, another 150 employees lost be justifed using the Liberal model. 354 Croft Dr., Tecumseh province-wide. In our neck of the woods, their jobs. Tela-theatre operations have opened in however, there is really nothing to compare to Windsor, but these are run by Toronto’s the direct hit to the solar plexus administered No study I know of has private-sector Woodbine cartel, which is by the province’s 2012 plan to modernize scooping pretty well all of the money. Ontario’s gaming industry. been done to determine how We cannot forget the Ontario horse “It’s been an unmitigated disaster,” says many of the 670,703 patrons breeding industry, which recently spawned a Brian Tropea, General Manager of the who populated the raceway $65 million lawsuit against the government. Ontario Harness Horse Association (OHHA). slots in its fnal year (1,833 Perhaps the sharpest dagger is the It’s impossible to argue the point with inglorious sight of Windsor Raceway, for this Kitchener-based encyclopedia of per day) trundled down to those who drive by today. standardbred horse racing who lived in these Caesars after the closure. “It’s like a scene out of Mad Max,” parts for 24 years and owned, trained, bred laments Tropea, referencing the Mel Gibson Entry fee: Minimum $50 in pledges per person and raced before ascending to the top mantle movie depicting dystopia – a community of the OHHA. Te question remains – for what? characterized by human misery, squalor, All funds raised to support The Kidney Foundation of Canada Tropea predicted as much in the afermath Supposedly, closure of the slots was going oppression and disease. of a stunning March 14, 2012 announcement to fortify, and perhaps even save, Caesars Te opponents of the Liberals are both by grim reapers Dwight Duncan, then Windsor and its 2,900 jobs. Well guess what? ofering platforms to restore the slots at Registration: www.kidney.ca/beachjam by July 23rd, 2014 Ontario’s Finance Minister, and Paul Caesars employed 2,927 in 2011, before the raceway program, with the Conservatives Godfrey, then Chair of the Board for the Raceway slots shut down. In 2012, OLG stats saying they will privatize the OLG as part For more information: 519.977.9211 Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission reported 2,833 workers. of the package. Te NDP would restore (OLG). OLG’s audited reports show a year-over- the program and apparently build in the Tey made a cameo appearance in town to year revenue increase of a measly $100,000 accountability that has been lacking from the Registration Opens: 9:00 a.m. declare the closing of the slots at racetracks at Caesars Windsor from the last year of OLG. Tournament Begins: 10:00 a.m. program in Windsor, Fort Erie and Sarnia raceway slots – $227.5 million in 2011-12 to Tis speaks to the most recent boondoggle. that soon shuttered once bountiful Windsor $227.6 million in 2012-13. Te three-member panel appointed to Raceway, which had come to rely on the slots No study I know of has been done to advise on fxing the industry have billed since that revenue was introduced 14 years determine how many of the 670,703 patrons the government $700,000. Typical of the earlier. who populated the raceway slots in its fnal Liberal way, two of the panelists have snared Now the provincial Auditor General, year (1,833 per day) trundled down to lucrative-paying jobs for themselves with the st $ Bonnie Lysyk, has validated Tropea’s Caesars afer the closure. While there are Ontario Racing Commission and Ontario 1 Place - 600 doomsday scenario. In her audit, released no doubt other competitive factors at play, Horse Racing. at the end of April, she concluded that the indication is not a lot. Patrons at Caesars So could the restoration of slots at raceways the revenue projections of the plan were increased marginally from 3,671,000 in 2011- possibly mean the reopening of Windsor $ nd overly ambitious and paid little heed to the 12 to 3,719,445 in 2012-2013, or 160 per day Raceway? Not likely, since the operators 2 Place - 300 devastation it has caused the horse racing from 10,030 per day to 10,190 per day. recently auctioned of everything from industry. In a column I wrote following Duncan’s transformers to lights on the track. Windsor’s economy and unemployment dirty deed in 2012, I attributed the feelings of “Te (4,200 capacity) grandstand is from rate took the brunt of that hurt, a fact that insiders that raceway slot patrons dislike the a diferent time,” says Tropea. He says the will forever tarnish the legacy of local boy Caesars’ atmosphere. future of big time racing in our region would Duncan and the Liberal cabinet at the time, “Te raceway is akin to family, where require a very diferent model, combining Proudly Sponsored By: including Premier Kathleen Wynne. gamblers feel comfortable in hair curlers and other activities, such as what Hiawatha has In Windsor, slots revenue of $39.1 million pajamas,” I wrote. “Tere is also the feeling done – ofering drive carting, beach volleyball a year was washed down the drain when that the Raceway slots are looser and pay and motor cross events. 750 slot machines were unplugged on out more” Voters might remember all of this when April 30 of 2012. Of that, $4 million went to To top it of, Caesars’ employees previously they cast their ballots on June 12. Panos Sechopoulos Wealth Management 6 BizX2014June52.indd 6 2014-05-27 9:43 PM