Number of machines isn’t part of zoning for Albion Road facility, Moffatt notes
There never was a cap on slots at the raceway casino, says councillor
There was never a municipal maximum on the number of slot machines in the casino at the Rideau Carleton Raceway, according to city council’s rural affairs chair.
Rideau- Goulbourn Coun. Scott Moffatt said unlike the number of table games at the facility, the number of slot machines isn’t part of the zoning for the Albion Road property. Even if some councillors have voiced interest in keeping the maximum number of slots at 1,250, there’s no municipal restriction on the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. to prevent it from allowing more, Moffatt said.
An October 2013 motion approved by council on a new revenue-sharing agreement with the OLG asked that the gaming agency confirm it “will not go beyond council’s stated, approved expansion of 1,250 slots and of 21 gaming tables, of any kind.” The OLG made that confirmation in writing.
“That line in a motion doesn’t create anything. It doesn’t create a cap,” Moffatt said Wednesday.
Moffatt, who is also Mayor Jim Watson’s representative on a committee of municipalities that host OLG gaming facilities, pointed out that a 2011 motion approved by council made the number of table games part of the zoning bylaw, but not the 1,250 slots. In fact, the number of slots has never been part of the land-use rules.
Last fall, the casino’s new operator, Hard Rock, won the committee of adjustment’s approval to add 14 table games under the zoning regulations. Hard Rock is asking council, through a new development application, for permission to add 20 table games, for a grand total of 55 table games in the next phase of the company’s $318-million expansion.
Hard Rock also wants to add 750 slot machines, in line with the 2,000 electronic games the OLG called for through its “modernization” of the gaming contract for Ottawa.
But other councillors who have voiced concern about the expansion of gambling in Ottawa believe council had made a decision on the maximum number of slot machines permitted at the raceway. At the same time, the OLG has said a council vote last September reaffirming the raceway as Ottawa’s gaming site, along with acknowledging Hard Rock as the operator, meant the end of any slot cap. The OLG said the city had told the gaming agency the slot limit has been dropped.
This week, Coun. Diane Deans, one of council’s vocal critics of gambling expansion, expressed shock that there seems to be no cap on the maximum number of slots. Other councillors who are also concerned about the health impacts of expanded gambling shared her surprise.
City staff have not yet provided their analysis of council decisions on gambling.
Moffatt said there should have been no expectation by councillors that the OLG would cap the number of slots at the existing 1,250.
“We always knew there was going to be expanded gaming,” Moffatt said, pointing to the OLG’s request for proposals that included the 2,000 electronic games.
“I don’t see where it wasn’t obvious that we were going to have more.”