New Casino London Ontario

Posted on by admin

Visit Casino Niagara on Mondays, departing London (Westmount Mall) at 10:15am, London (Townplace Suites) at 10:30am, Woodstock at 11:00am and Brantford at 11:30am. Only $15 per person with included bonus and luxury motor coach transportation. Gateway Casinos & Entertainment is currently eyeing the official opening of its new casino complex in London, Ontario, a project of grand proportions. The new CA$75-million gaming hotspot would be able to attract individuals interested in gaming on a daily basis and make the region an even more popular region. For the second time in two years, Canada’s largest private casino operator has unveiled plans for a casino complex in London, this time in the city’s south end. Gateway Casino and Entertainment.

By Miranda ChantDecember 20, 2018 11:17am

Gaming giant Gateway Casinos and Entertainment is still fully committed to building a casino in London, just not at the Western Fair District.

In a move that would see the British Columbia-based company move out of the east-end, Gateway inked a deal earlier this week to relocate its planned entertainment complex to a site on Wonderland Road, north of Wharncliffe Road.

“It just became increasingly difficult to come to an agreement [at the Western Fair District] and there were a number of issues that arose that we couldn’t have anticipated,” said Rob Mitchell, Gateway’s director of communications. “The latest of which was an archeological study which revealed the ruins of what I believe was a Presbyterian church and it had a cemetery. There were issues about dealing with that… and issues around demolition, the existing footprint, and the aging infrastructure of the fairgrounds. It became increasingly problematic for us to stay there.”

Negotiations between Gateway, city hall, and the Western Fair District had dragged on for a year and a half and were said to be very slow-going.

Gateway had been proposing to build a $140 million casino, hotel and restaurant complex at the Western Fair District. It would have included up to 1,200 slot machines, 46 gaming tables, and would have created nearly 1,000 jobs.

At this point, there is no indication what the country’s largest private casino operator has planned for the new southwest London site.

“All I can tell you is that we just got that lease arrangement, we are looking at that property and will be moving forward at that site and reassessing what our plans and intentions are for London,” said Mitchell. “We are absolutely committed to building a new casino in London, but it is basically a clean slate now. It’s a totally different proposition than what it was at the fairground.”

Mitchell said he anticipates more information about the company’s new development plans on Wonderland Road will be released early in the new year.

Before it can begin construction of a casino at the new site, Gateway would have to go to the city to have the area rezoned, something Mitchell doesn’t foresee as a big hurdle.

“It currently is described as an enterprise zone as part of the city, which is a blanket expression by the city that my understanding is that it is open for creative, commercial, residential, industrial development,” said Mitchell. “It should be relatively easy for us to acquire the necessary zoning.”

Gateway’s relocation plans put harness racing in the city in jeopardy, Western Fair District officials said Thursday.

Ontario

“We have made both the OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming) and the Ford government aware of the level of financial support needed to continue our racing operation if Gateway relocates. We are currently waiting for the government’s response to our formal request for long-term funding support,” Western Fair President Hugh Mitchell said in a statement.

The Raceway at Western Fair generates an economic impact of more than $50 million and supports well over 5,000 jobs across the region, according to the Western Fair president, who added that he wasn’t shocked, but disappointed by Gateway’s decision to move.

“Our preference would have been to have Gateway remain here,” he said.

Gateway assumed control of the day-to-day operations of the slots in London in May 2017 after entering into a 20-year deal with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation the previous December. The company also took over the slots in Woodstock, Clinton, Dresden, and Hanover, as well as the casino in Point Edward. It has since broken ground on a new $36 million casino in Chatham.

Oh, how times have changed! A new Ontario casino site expansion planned for London is being welcomed with open arms by the community. It’s a far cry from the reaction incurred twenty years ago when a mere 300-machine slots lounge proposal appeared on the docket.

The new Ontario casino site is being built as an expansion to the Western Fair District. Not only is it being received with little more than a mild stir of uncertainty, the plans call for a full-blown casino experience, with a hotel and restaurants, popular table games, and many more slots added to the fair’s modest gaming floor.

The expansion project coincides with the integration of Gateway Entertainment and Casinos as the new operator of Ontario’s North and Southwestern gaming bundles. As part of its ‘Modernization‘ plan, OLG selected Gateway as the best private operator to take over day to day operations of those properties, and the first thing on Gateway’s to-do list is an expansion of the London raceway.

Welcoming the New Ontario Casino Site

So why is it that locals, who were so staunchly opposed to the idea of a slots parlor at Western Fair in 1997, are welcoming the proposal for a new Ontario casino site two decades later? The answer appears to lie within Gateway’s calculated design plans.

Casinos In Ontario Canada

The project does include converting the existing slots parlor – opened in 1999 with just 300 machines, and since increased to 750 – into a full-blown casino. However, it won’t feature all the glitz and glam associated with Vegas-style casinos – the same glitz and glam found along Ontario’s Niagara Fallsview and Windsor casinos along the southern border.

Gateway intends to mimic the subdued ambiance of the existing charitable gaming facilities already located throughout Ontario. The difference being that Western Fair’s games will be genuine class iii slot machines and table games, not the class ii TapTix machines the charitable variety are permitted to install.

As Gateway spokesperson Carrie Kormos explained, this won’t be a “destination” casino, but rather an amplified attraction that will create hundreds of employment opportunities within the community.

New Casino London Ontario Hotel

“We rely on the numbers and what makes sense,” said Kormos. “It’s important to have the right mix of amenities and the scale appropriate to the community.”

New Casino London Ontario Hotels

Hotel Only Area Of Contention

The London community is acquiesce to the plans for the new Ontario casino site. The only area of contention is pointed towards the new hotel Gateway wants to build to boost tourism to the Western Fair District.

Some community members argue that another hotel is unnecessary, and would only serve to saturate the market. There are already several hotels in the downtown area, some of which are clearly visible from the London raceway. But all in all, support for the casino expansion is high.

Casinos In Ontario Canada Map

Gateway’s plan is to invest approximately $200 million in the southwestern bundle properties. The Ontario casino site expansion is first on that list. The company estimates the project will increase the casino’s current number of employees from 350 to 1,000. While that sounds like a large number, it hardly compares to the 4,000 staff members employed by Niagara Fallsview, or the 3,000 working at Caesars’ Windsor property.

New Gateway Casino London Ontario

#1 Canadian-Friendly Casino for 2020

Royal Vegas is our editorial pick for safe Canadian gaming. Currently offering a good range of Canadian deposit options, everything from prepaid gift cards, to eCheck, instadebit and visa/mastercard. That, and a world-class gaming experience, with countless table games, strong variety, and even live dealers. The brand has been in the business for a decade long.

Visit http://RoyalVegas.com