Winning slots operator will likely have loophole to move from Flamboro

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has "three to five" companies waiting in the wings who want to run the slots at Flamboro Downs. But there will likely be nothing in the contract that says they have to stay there.

The OLG wrapped up its request for pre-qualification(RFPQ)process last year for the 801 slots at the racetrack, which brought out plenty of companies who want to operate the 801 slots at Flamboro Downs, said spokesperson Tony Bitonti.

"Three to five" of those companies will be invited to submit RFPs for a 25-yearlease. And the lease will likely allowthe winning bidder to move the slots ifFlamboroughisn't working out, he said.

"That's a possibility," Bitonti said. The winning bidder will "look at the market and see how things are going."

Should this process carry on without further scrutiny or attention, it's possible that they receive licensing forFlamboroughand then move downtown based on our current zoning.- Coun. Matthew Green, Ward 3

The operator will "look to see whether there's a good rate of return on investment to move the facility. Does it make sense to move the facility?" If the OLG, the city and the operator agree, it will move.

Moving the facility is exactly what many in Hamiltonhave been afraid of. Through the province's now-defunct Slots at Racetracks program, Flamborough horse breeders relied on a portion of the slot revenueas prize money. The province cancelling the program coincided with OLG's "modernization plan" that divided the province into 29 gaming zones. A 2014 report fromOntario's auditor generalshows that OLG wanteddowntown casinos so the corporationwould get millions more in revenue.

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In February 2013, council voted that it would allow gaming in Hamilton, but that it wanted it in Flamboro Downs. It did leave a loophole that gaming operators could operate elsewhere if Flamboro Downs was "not a viable site." Then council could vote to allow it elsewhere. The vote was so close, councillors said then, that the loophole was necessary for the vote to pass.

The OLG contract, it seems, willhave that loophole too. Hamilton is in the "west GTA gaming bundle," which means whoever runs the Flamboro Downs slots will also run Casino Brantford and the slots at the Grand River Raceway in Eloraand Mohawk in Milton. The contract will be for those four sites, Bitonti said.

The whole process makesCoun. Matthew Green skeptical. The danger of a downtown casino hasn't gone away, he said.

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Green, who was an anti-casino activist before he was elected in the fall, plans to introduce a motion this term of council to tighten regulations that would allow a downtown casino.

"Should this process carry on without further scrutiny or attention,it's possible that they receive licensing for Flamborough and then move downtown based on our current zoning," he said.

OLG won't say who the bidders are, and none have revealed themselves. RockHammer, the locally owned company formed in 2013to build a casino and Hard Rock Cafdowntown, is not one of them.

What's certain: it will be at least mid 2016 before the winning bidder is chosen, Bitonti said. Analyzing interested bidders for gaming bundles has proved to be a labour-intense process. The OLGwon't choose a winning bidder for its east gaming zone the first to go through the process, and a likely template for the rest until mid 2015.And the RFPQ process for the Greater Toronto area has been extended at leastfour times.

The initial deadline for the GTA was March 2014, and is now this August.

Clarification

Any plan to move gaming from Flamboro Downs to elsewhere in Hamilton would require three-way agreement between the OLG, the operator and the city.