Daily BrewLas Vegas casino-hotel giant MGM Resorts eyes Toronto for billion-dollar development
One of the biggest players in Las Vegas is courting Toronto as a potential site for its first multi-billion-dollar casino development in Canada.
MGM Resorts International, the company behind such Las Vegas attractions as the Bellagio, Luxor, Mirage and Mandalay Bay, says the Big Smoke would be an ideal location for a northern expansion.
"It's an amazing market, it's an amazing city," Alan Feldman, MGM's senior vice-president of public affairs, told the Globe and Mail. "We'd be prepared to invest an awful lot in the development of the concept."
In an interview with CTV News, Feldman called Toronto "one of the most spectacular cities in the world.
"Toronto has enormous appeal in terms of its cultural diversity, in terms of its entertainment diversity, its physical attributes. It is an incredibly beautiful city; its location along the water gives it added appeal. It also has a great tourism infrastructure.
"There is enormous opportunity in Toronto to do something that is truly spectacular."
MGM development staff visited Toronto recently, the Globe said, and has hired a local consulting firm to lobby city hall on the idea of a resort development worth $2 billion to $6 billion and would include a casino, hotels, restaurants, spas and convention facilities.
Feldman said the company is not interested in a small-scale project such as adding slot machines at Woodbine Racetrack, which supporters see as essential to saving horse racing at the Toronto landmark.
MGM wants an integrated resort where gambling would take up as little as 10 per cent of the space, he said.
"This is really an issue of whether the government sees this (gambling) as a means to a larger end or an end unto itself," Mr. Feldman said.
The Globe said city council sent two casino-related motions to committees last week. Councillors are reportedly divided on whether to embrace MGM's concept.
Sussex Strategy Group began the lobbying process officially on MGM's behalf earlier this month.
Coincidentally, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation revealed plans last month to open a casino in the Greater Toronto Area as part of its overhaul of Ontario's gaming industry.
No location has been selected, but there are suggestions the publicly-owned, money-losing, mothballed Ontario Place waterfront amusement park would be ideal.
"I think Ontario Place would make a superb site," said Feldman, adding MGM is considering other sites as well.
But Coun. Mike Layton, whose ward includes Ontario Place, is against turning it into a casino resort, concerned about the traffic and potential for crime. He moved a motion that would bar gambling from the site. Another motion asks that no casino be approved without a referendum.
"Am I surprised they're trying to get ahead of the game?" Layton said of MGM. "No. The casino is the only one who wins here. The house always wins."
The Ontario government is touting a casino development as a major economic boon with the potential to create 4,000 jobs.
While MGM boosts the idea of a massive gambling centre, another Nevada entrepreneur says Ontario is ready for something else the state is known for - glitzy whorehouses.
Toronto Sun columnist Mike Strobel reports Dennis Hof, owner of Nevada's notorious Bunny Ranch, thinks Toronto is ready for a its own upscale brothel now that Ontario courts have struck down the province's bawdy-house law.
Hof told Strobel a Toronto Bunny Ranch would be a "beautiful place with 15 or 20 rooms, a dorm for the girls, a five-star restaurant for the guys to have a little dinner and hang out with the girls."
Gambling and legalized hookers. RIP Toronto the Good.
(CP photo)
