HEATHER BOA Bullet News CLINTON – The Municipality of Central Huron will receive about $3,000 more in revenue from the slot machines next year, calculates the mayor, based on a new formula announced by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
OLG announced it would increase the percentage paid to host municipalities from five per cent to 5.25 per cent of net revenue after a switch from Canadian to international accounting standards, which affected the calculation for net revenue. Otherwise, the move would have resulted in a $19,000 drop in revenue, Jim Ginn said.
In 2001, which was the first full year of operations, Central Huron received almost $444,000 from slot revenue generated at Clinton Racetrack Slots. That number has fluctuated in an upward trend and the municipality received $641,000 from the Slots in 2011.
The change also eliminates different formulas for municipalities that host charity casinos, for-profit casinos and slots facilities. They will all now receive 5.25 per cent of net revenue.
Ginn said the formula will continue to be in effect when the gaming facilities become privately run. He said the revenues will go to the OLG, which will pay back the private operator and host municipalities.
Earlier this year, OLG outlined a plan to carve the province into 29 gaming zones in which single, privately run facilities could operate. Clinton would be part of what’s referred to as Southwestern Zone Five. Unlike some zones, there is just a single slots facility already operating in the zone. However, up to 300 slot machines and an as-yet undetermined number of table games will be allowed in this area, which currently has 102 slot machines.
The provincial government has said it will end the Slots at Racetracks program on March 31, 2013, which provided 10 per cent of net revenue to horse people’s purses accounts and 10 per cent to the raceway operators.
A transition panel of former cabinet ministers Elmer Buchanan, John Snobelen and John Wilkinson has issued an interim report to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs suggesting a new partnership between the government and the horse racing industry that would “have a positive impact on employment, the economy, government finances and the industry’s future.”
Its final report is expected as early as Friday, says a source in the minister’s office.
