Operator News

Canada – Gateway must prove local support for London casino expansion

By Phil - 29 January 2018

Canadian casino group Gateway Casinos and Entertainment will need to prove it has support from local residents and the city council before it can expand gaming at its Western Fair Raceway & Slot property in London in south west Ontario.

The company’ described the current slot-only racino set up as being ‘slots in a box’ It now wants to invest $140m to transform the site into a fully fledged casino utilising the company’s premium brand Grand Villa casino, with a 125-room hotel, a new gaming floor with 1,200 slot machines and 46 table games and and four restaurants.

Gateway, Canada’s largest private casino operator, took over slot operations at Western Fair in May. The current lease, which costs Gateway $6m a year, expires in 2020.

“London is the market for us,” said Rob Mitchell Gateway’s Director of Communications and Public Affairs. “The kind of entertainment we offer here, we source locally from the community and this is a great area known for its agriculture and food and farming community. We’re here in London. We’ve moved our head office in Ontario to London. We’re investing $140m, we hope to create in excess of 700 new jobs. We want to build a brand new casino and it’s a bit disappointing we weren’t part of the story. We need to renegotiate the current lease we have. We’re looking for a more equitable lease arrangement or even potentially purchasing land. We absolutely do have another site in mind. If we can’t land on the London fairgrounds, we have other alternatives that we think we can execute fairly quickly.”

The slot only casino generates around $4.5m in tax for the local government each year.

The $140m project would be carried out in two-phases over the next two years. Firstly, Phase one would build the casino, a public gallery, and a strip for food and beverage services

Phase two would see the development of a new and smaller grand stand that would seat 300 to 400 people. It would also build an eight-storey, 125 bedroom hotel. The casino and hotel complex would add an additional 700 jobs to its current 300 employees. It current quota of slots is 700.