HawthorneVillager.com

Apparently the OLG sent a letter on April 15 advising of a change in revenue sharing from provincial slots.

Wellington Council is concerned about the revenue split with the province from Grand River raceway. A local paper reported the story under the title "OLG set to claw back slots cash from township, society, horse groups". "The provincial government is changing the way its agencies do their accounting - and that change is going to cost local groups across the province a lot of money."
http://www.wellingtonadvertiser.com/ind ... itmno=8813

I have not seen this item on a Milton committee agenda. Did I miss it? Is it real? Are our councillors aware of it? Can any councillor tell us what the potential impact might be on Milton? Each $300k reduction in the slots revenue stream would require about a 1% tax increase to recover, or an equivilent reduction in spending.

Milton should have a full blown casino.

Yes the rif rafs with over a billion in revenue for the town/province. Is there another kind of rif raf?

We (the town) only get that percentage of $$ from slot machines. So if they add blackjack/poker tables, etc to our existing casino we wouldn't get revenue from that. It's just a percentage of slot-machine revenue that goes to our municipality.

Yes, it does appear like a tax-grab to me as well (i.e. province keeping more money with less going to municipalities & organizations). I understand how they need to make this accounting change for IFRS purposes. But then they should also modify the calculation percentage to make it $$-neutral to all the groups that depend on that percentage of profits. The way it is now, this new modification shifts more money to the province and a little less to health organizations, municipalities, etc.

Are you saying miltonians are degenerates compared to people from barrie or niagara falls?

I don't think that is being implied at all, what he is trying to state (if I read correctly) is that casinos attract the rif raf from wherever they are and also attract rif raf from further away, and so we can expect to have to deal with problem people from all over Halton, Peel, Guelph etc. if we had a bigger casino. The relationship between casinos and higher crime rates is pretty well understood...

So especially if the town stands nothing to gain from a bigger casino in terms of revenue, why would we want to risk higher crime?

I agree, if Milton gets nothing from it, there's no point. My argument was to generate millions for the town.

Id rather have a casino than a prison in town. We are talking about stereotypes that each bring right?

Place that sells illegal alcohol in violation of prohibition laws

Police presence will deter crime. (When was the last time a criminal went to a prison to commit a felony? )

Casino will attract crime (not always violent, but definitely drugs, laundering & prostitution)

Id rather have a poker player wandering the streets of milton than someone that just finished their sentence. But what the heck do I know.