Sudbury Casino Faces Opposition

“NO CASINO IN SUDBURY”

This seems to be the general mood prevailing in Sudbury, which is on the verge of opening its doors to, as you guessed it, a casino.

However, based on what was observed at the town hall meeting in St. Andrews earlier last week, the casino might never see the light of day. The opposition seemed to be fairly strong.

The arguments

The steering committee members Ruby Loughheed Yawney, Tom Fortin, and Cathy Orlando debated against the construction of a gambling unit, while also answering questions from attendees.

Orlando, who hails from Niagara Falls, managed to offer facts and figures on the social-economic impact of such a project. She claimed that reports of domestic abuse incidents were 25% higher than average in areas that were located not more than 30 kilometers from a casino.

She finally added that casinos should, at best, be limited to tourist locations and that Sudbury wasn’t one.

Ruby Lougheed Yawney, Founder of No Casino Sudbury, has stood against the idea since 2012. This was the same period when Marianne Matichuk, the town mayor at the time, also considered bringing in a casino. Yawney argued that there was a misconception regarding the revenue that could be generated by a new casino and the prospective benefits of that revenue.

She sent her point across through rhetorical anti-casino questions and an anecdote about a gambling related suicide. She also stated that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG), at the end of the day, could not set up shop in a community where the council refuses entry.

The people’s voice

Eric Legendre, one of the attendees and a former gambling addict, was also in support of the no casino movement. He stated that there was a lot of anxiety surrounding the issue and that it was easy to ignore an addiction when it was far away. However, with proposed plans of a casino in Sudbury, Legendre believes that he needs to voice his concerns right away.
He also spoke of how destructive gambling addiction could be and how he had to start life from scratch all over again because of the addiction.

Tom Fortin, one of the steering committee members and a local businessman, spoke at the meeting as well. Fortin argued that Sudbury was a small town and a casino would end up attracting almost 90% of the local population, thereby, starving other establishments of their revenue.

He added that the government should be focusing on boosting entrepreneurship instead of allowing the cannibalization of other businesses.

He then urged the council to fight the casino.