$567,105 from OLG For Casino
THUNDER BAY – News – The City of Thunder Bay got a cheque from the OLG on April 17th. $567,105, was paid to the city as our share of the revenue from the OLG Casino.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) issued fourth-quarter (January to March, 2014) non-tax gaming revenue payments totaling $19,103,781 to 22 municipalities which currently host OLG facilities.
The OLG shares that to date, host municipalities have received more than $1 billion in non-tax gaming revenue.
“Host OLG municipalities invest the shared gaming site revenues in important local programs and infrastructure projects, creating robust communities,” said Charles Sousa, Minister of Finance. “The modernization of Ontario’s lottery and gaming business will also result in additional revenues for the province to protect key public services like health care and education.”
There are no figures on the costs of the casino in Thunder Bay or other communities in terms of the real social cost in terms of gambling addiction, family strife, or other issues raised by the monies generated by the OLG in Thunder Bay. Ontario currently spends $41 million to help fund programs for research, treatment and prevention of problems caused by gambling.
The OLG states that these payments are made under an equitable formula in the Municipality Contribution Agreement that determines the fee municipalities receive for hosting an OLG gaming facility and are based on an escalating scale of slot machine revenue that is consistent across all sites in Ontario.
Under the agreement, municipalities receive:
• 5.25% on the first $65 million of slot revenue
• 3.0% on the next $135 million of slot revenue
• 2.5% on the next $300 million of slot revenue
• 0.5% on slot revenue above $500 million
• 4.0% on table game revenue
At $2 billion annually, OLG provides the Ontario government with its largest source of non-tax revenue.
