Casino coin drops into C-K budget

By Bruce Corcoran bruce@chathamvoice.com

The funds received by the municipality for hosting a casino continued to be funnelled into the same place: the overall Chatham-Kent budget.

Mayor Darrin Canniff said the latest instalment –$427,620 – the funds from Jan. 1 to March 31 of this year, followed its predecessors.

“The money goes into the general budget. It’s not designated to anything in particular,” he said. “Any over or under is reported at the end of the year as a surplus or a deficit.”

The over-under point is $1.5 million, as that’s what the municipality budgets for. For the previous fiscal year, which ended March 31, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation paid the municipality more than $1.692 million for hosting the Cascades Casino for the past fiscal year, April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

“It’s great to see the casino doing well and the municipality certainly benefits from it,” Canniff said.

Since the Slots at Dresden gaming site opened in April 2001, Chatham-Kent has received $16,146,767. The casino shifted to Chatham in

2019.

Payments to host communities are based on a formula consistently applied across all gaming sites in Ontario using a graduated scale of gaming revenue at the hosted site.

“OLG’s Municipal Contribution Agreement payments are building strong communities where people and families can enjoy a high quality of life,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance, in a media release. “These revenues help support local program and critical infrastructure, making a real difference for gaming host municipalities.”