Supplier News
Canada – Century opens 550 machine Century Downs Racetrack
By Phil - 2 April 2015
Century Casinos has now opened the casino at Century Downs Racetrack and Casino, which features 550 gaming machines and electronic gaming tables, an off-track betting room, a restaurant and lounge area as well as meeting and event space.
With the casino open, Century is now preparing for the first weekend of harness racing, which is scheduled to start April 25, 2015 at2:00 p.m.
Century Downs Racetrack and Casino is located less than one mile north of the city limits of Calgary and 4.5 miles from the Calgary International Airport. The location is ideally positioned exiting off the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, which is the main corridor between Calgary and Edmonton and one of the most heavily used highways in Western Canada, next to the Cross Iron Mills shopping centre, a major regional attraction, and has the potential to capture both the north and the northwest Calgary markets, which do not currently have a casino.
Max Gibb, Vice-Chairman of the United Horsemen of Alberta (UHA) and Century Downs, said: “It’s been a long pregnancy. It’s followed the ups and downs of our province of doing development but at the end of the day we’re going to have horses running around there and it will be a rejuvenation of breeding and training and transporting and all the good things about horse racing.”
Shirley McClellan, Chief Executive of Horse Racing Alberta, added: “It’s very exciting for our horse racing fans. We’ve been out of the Calgary market for a long time. People in this area have missed it and they’ve looked forward with great anticipation to the casino opening today and on April 25 we’ll have our first parimutuel racing on this new track. It’s been a long, long time for this track to come to fruition but it’s here today and it’s important to us because a lot of our owners are from southern Alberta.”
“This is a world-class facility,” added Bill Robinson, President and CEO of the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission. He said it would give horse racing in the region ‘a real shot in the arm.’
