Now that we know the scope of the casino being proposed for Ladner, we can get a better idea of what it could mean revenue-wise for the City of Delta. In other words, civic officials have about five million reasons to approve a rezoning application that’s sure to be contentious.
The proposal submitted to city hall by Gateway Casinos and Entertainment Ltd. calls for up to 600 slot machines and 24 gaming tables, which would make it a decent size facility but substantially smaller than places like the River Rock or Grand Villa that feature over 1,000 slots.
Even though it would be one of the smaller casinos in the Lower Mainland, the proposal for the Delta Town & Country Inn site could still prove to be a windfall for the City of Delta given host local governments receive 10 per cent of net casino gaming revenues. There are no exact figures at this time, but if you look at the size of Greater Vancouver casinos and the revenues they produce for their local governments, it’s easy enough to see where Delta would fit in.
We’re not going to see the almost $17 million Richmond received from the River Rock or the nearly $11 million Burn-aby got from the Grand Villa in the last fiscal year, but rather Delta is likely to slot in somewhere between the $4 million Elements generated for Surrey and the $7 million Cascades poured into Langley’s coffers. I’m thinking $5 million is a pretty good ballpark figure.
Given Delta has been loath to use found money (think surpluses or port amenity funding) to cover operational expenses due to the uncertainty of such revenue streams, you can safely bet that any casino money would be directed to-ward capital projects. Five million bucks every year would go a long way to help build a fire hall or turf field or arts centre, lessening, or removing altogether, that burden on taxpayers.
That’s not to say a casino is in the bag, but given the financial rewards at stake here, and the fact that both Gateway and the B.C. Lottery Corporation have agreed to locate it at the only site Delta deemed suitable, it’s difficult for me to see it being defeated.
Delta is coming to the table late, but it looks like civic officials finally want a piece of what their regional colleagues have long enjoyed.
