I’m with Ron Corbett (Journalist for the Ottawa Sun) on this one.  Rideau Carleton Raceway gets my vote.  Why?

1. The site is already established with slot machines and a huge client base (1.5 million per year).
2. There is oodles of parking.
3. It is relatively easy to access for our rural neighbours.
4. Points 1 and 2 sound like reasonable choices from a cost perspective to me – I don’t want any of my tax dollars (municipal or provincial) going into a casino – ANYWHERE!
5. Any downtown location would mean public transit for those of us who live here.  If you are in the east, west or south, direct bus service only runs for worker bees (mornings and late afternoons, Monday to Friday).  I don’t care how much fun it is, I would NOT take 2 or 3 buses and 1-2 hours overall travel time each way to go there.
6. Downtown might be nice for tourists in summer, but Ottawa in winter (other than Winterlude) is NOT a tourist hotspot and my guess is it isn’t tourists who are responsible for the success of this sort of venture.
7. A casino at Scotiabank Place would also work well – but I doubt my budget could handle having a casino that close by.
8. Our mayor, Jim Watson, wants a downtown location for the new Casino.  He will likely bully Council to agree with him as he usually does.  That, for me, is just one more reason for not wanting a downtown choice.

This may all be a moot point.  If the provincial budget fails and an election is called, Dalton’s frantic need for sources of income (and thus the desire to build more casinos in the province) may go the way of the DoDo bird.

What do you think?

Sue