Addressing Concerns and Maximizing Opportunities
City Council has the opportunity to recommend conditions to the OLG if they decide to proceed with the establishment of a casino in Toronto. The conditions allow the City to address concerns and maximise opportunities raised by the public and staff during the consultation and review process. While the City has the opportunity to recommend conditions, it is important that the conditions strike a balance between addressing the City's priorities and enabling a casino to proceed. Examples of the types of conditions that the City may consider fall under categories such as Planning and Urban Design, Health, and Social Contract, and include:
Planning and Urban Design
- Improve the pedestrian experience along streets through animated and active building frontages
- Ensure a unique, high quality architectural and urban design which contributes to the city's skyline that respects existing landmarks and vistas
- Ensure signage is of a high quality design that does not detract from the surrounding area
- Require review by the City's Urban Design Review Panel
- Improve area infrastructure, as required (city services, hydro, transit), to ensure development is sustainable and impacts are minimized
- Ensure that the development contributes to the area's liveability and supports the creation of a complete community
- Undertake an economic impact assessment addressing the impact to the local area and the City
- Provide marketing and an implementation strategy that focuses on drawing international tourists
Health
- Limit casino hours of operation (no 24-hour access to casinos) to reduce the chance that people will gamble for extended periods of time
- Limit the number of electronic gaming machines (e.g. slot machines), slow down their speed of play and control their operation to mitigate this addictive form of gambling
- Eliminate casino loyalty programs, which encourage people to gamble more often to get rewards
- Prohibit ATMs on the casino floor to limit convenient access to money for gambling
- Prohibit casino credit and holding accounts to discourage borrowing money for gambling
- Reduce maximum bet sizes and implement daily loss maximums to keep people from losing too much money in one day
- Implement strong casino self-exclusion programs to support gamblers who choose to be banned
- Issue monthly statements so that people can keep track of their gambling wins and losses
- Restrict where alcohol can be purchased/served in casinos to ensure a gambler's judgement, actions and control are not impaired while gambling
Social Contract
- Provide skills training and meaningful employment opportunities to youth, local communities, and unemployed/underemployed Toronto residents with specific participation and hiring targets during construction of the casino
- Implement a Toronto casino employment strategy to support the ongoing operation of the casino and related services
- Fund commitments for expanded problem gambling prevention and treatment programs
- Commit to review and make adjustments to casino operations that may significantly contribute to problem gambling
- Establish a Toronto Casino Social and Health Impact Audit Committee with casino operators, OLG, City of Toronto and relevant research experts to monitor, assess and regularly report on the social and health impacts of casino operations on Toronto residents, funded by the casino operator
- Implement a player-card system to track casino use patterns and frequency, and provide data to monitor the social and health impacts of gambling