Hosting a gambling house continues to earn the municipality cash.
As a host community for Cascades Casino Chatham, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent recently received a payment of $461,614, cashing in on some of the revenues from the second quarter of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s (OLG) fiscal year. Over the first six months of the fiscal year, April 1 to Sept. 30, the municipality has pocketed $936,606. Since the Dresden Slots opened back in April 2001 and operations eventually shifted to Chatham, the municipality has received nearly $20.5 million from the OLG.
The payments to host communities are based on a formula in the Municipality Contribution Agreement that is consistently applied across all land-based casino sites in Ontario using a graduated scale of gaming revenue at the hosted site, according to OLG officials.
“Chatham-Kent is able to offer local programs and improve the quality of life of our residents through the economic activity generated through revenue from Cascades Casino Chatham,” said Trevor Jones, MPP for Chatham-Kent–Leamington, in a media release. “The people of Ontario benefit from OLG’s gaming revenues as 100 per cent of OLG profits are reinvested in the province to support provincial priorities.”
