Casino news from http://www.canmoreleader.com/
Non-profit groups in the Bow Valley know where to hold em’, with more than $1.7 million in gambling revenues coming annually from casino nights hosted in Calgary, according to information provided by the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.
Stephanie Francis, a spokeswoman for AGLC, said 37 of the 38 groups in Banff and Canmore licensed to hold casino nights in the past 12 months earned more than $46,000 each, exclusively through Frank Sisson’s Silver Dollar Casino in Calgary.
Non-profit groups like school bands and sports organizations are reaping the benefits of gambling despite the lack of video lottery terminals in Canmore and the not-yet-built Stoney casino, slated for Highway 40 and the Trans-Canada Highway, 25 kilometres to the east of Canmore.
AGLC would not release the names of organizations that hold casino licenses, but it’s not that hard to find organizations that will talk about casino revenue and what it means to them.
Terry Morgan, past president of Canmore Minor Hockey, said the organization has used casinos for 10 years, though not all people connected with the organization may realize what they generate.
“Probably 25 to 50 per cent of the parents don’t realize how much the casino brings in,” Morgan said. “We give enough money to the government and it’s nice to see some of it coming back.
“As a group we look at it as: we need the money. We don’t really question where the money is coming from and the morality of it,” he said.
The organization earned $35,000 from its last semi-annual casino, and that can be stretched over two years to cover a significant portion of Canmore Minor Hockey’s fundraising needs, he said.
Without the gambling revenue from Calgary, Minor Hockey would have to approach more local businesses for support, Morgan added.
To date, public schools in the Bow Valley have not used casinos as fundraisers, but the Band Parents Association from Canmore Collegiate High School held its first casino this year.
Canmore Collegiate principal Angela Flynn said the money earned will pay for band trips and large instruments.
“As a group they’ve chosen to do that, and if it allows every student in the program to be in that program because they don’t need to worry about funds required, so be it,” Flynn said.
The school funds extracurricular sports activities through the Gary and Kay Anderson golf tournament, which earned about $40,000, she added.
“There are other ways to raise money. The casinos are just one of them,” Flynn said. “People are going to gamble, so if the money is going to the kids… that’s a good thing.”
Banff Community High School principal Brian O’Toole said the idea of using casinos was quickly shot down in a recent school council meeting.
“From a social level it’s not something that we would entertain,” O’Toole said. “But I see both sides of the issue.”
The government hasn’t been collecting VLT revenue from Canmore since 2003, when the AGLC finally got around to honouring the wishes of those who voted in a plebiscite in the late 1990s to have the machines yanked from Canmore.
Banff VLTs continue to pull in cash for the province and have earned more than $2 million annually for the government in the past.
Casinos were a hot topic in the Bow Valley in January when Banff Coun. Ossi Treutler Jr. suggested a casino in Banff as an idea that could be looked at as an alternative revenue source.
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