WHat makes you think we have NEED of a casino anywhere?  We have a WANT for casinos all over the place.  And many peole will use that want to create a sense of need.  SOme will even create a false sense that the casino is serving a social need by diverting a percentage of the money to do some social good (that should be funded bey society in a way that does not create a potentially damaging environment for peoplle and families).

 Casinos are the way of least resistence and imagination I suppose. When I see governments turning to these solutions, I see a government that doesn't know how to generate business or trade and be supportive to an honest economic system that encourages entrapreneurs, education and research. When casinos become a source of revenue that preys on the very constituents that they are supposed to serve, it is a clear sign of failure on THEIR part, not the church.

Does Toronto not have a casino currently?

Sorry for the ignorance, I've heard things about this, but didn't even give it half of my attention.

Brantford has a Casino.

Every now and then, typically during City of Brantford budget talks we hear about how much our hosting fee amounts to.  Brantford as host gets a portion (small portion) of the revenue from the slot machines.  We don't get a dime of the revenue from the other games.

The Brantford Casion opened in 1999, a year after I was ordained.

Apart from the financial benefit to the city we have been treated to the repeat spectacle of dogs being left to die in vehicles while their owners are busily chasing lightning inside.  Happily there always seems to be somebody who notices before the dogs actually perish and windows get busted and animals rescued before tragedy.  So you lose your shirt in the casino and come out to find you have to replace a window in your car, raising your insurance, your dog is in the pound and you have to pay to get it back and most likely you are being taken to court for neglecting that animal.  A couple of high profile, for the city at any rate, stories on gambling addiction.

Now the predicted number of tourists never happened and infact is down now that other Casinos have opened elsewhere in the Province.  And apart from the economic benefits of employment which are slight most individuals and dollars coming into the community via the Casino leave via armoured Car for Provincial coffers and well, you know how responsible the government is with our money.

Brantford would have survived without a Casino and would continue to survive if it was suddenly taken away.

Our biggest economic partner is Wildrid Laurier University which opened a sattelite campus here in the eary 2000s and has been growing at a steady clip bringing business back to the downtown core after we gambled on the Eaton's Centre and lost our shirts.

Nippising University has also opened a satellite campus and while it is not growing nearly as fast as Laurier is it is still there.

Toronto doesn't need a Casino.  They are a windfall of sorts for the Province, they are not significant contributors to city budgets.  And the anticipated job numbers always fall short.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Do you feel any particular group is being excluded. ALso in Toronto is it faith leaders or just the clergy who are speaking out?

London has never had a full casino, just slots at the racetrack. Caused their fair share of trouble, I guess. They may be going away since the government yanked the Jockey Club's gambling franchise in favour of more casinos but I think I've heard that Wynne is reconsidering that. Having seen the weird wonderland that is Vegas, I can safely say that I have no interest in seeing any cities close to me go down that road. If I really need to gamble, the 3 hour flight there is close enough.

Mendalla

As sOomeone who preached against having a Toronto, i was delighted to hear that we wont be getting one.

There are two sides to a coin.

http://www.ucobserver.org/justice/2010/07/gambling_casinos/

The Toronto Casino and the proposed Ottawa are not going to be owned by First Nations, Besides there is no econmic model that says gambling is a form of economic developemnt. On the contary because of the pay, casinos slow down economic develpment in small communities, but taking the best people, who could others wise be involved in creating or running businesses and services (like education)  that actual create wealth, instead of just redistribution.

There is a place and a time for everything. Gamblings is for the time, when everyone has their basic needs met.

@ chemgal - in Toronto there is currently a "slots only" casino attached to our big horse racing track - ie no gaming tables - everything is electronic; no hotel or theatre or other amenities.

 But it's only about a 1.5hour drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls which has a huge casino complex, and likewise about 1.5 hour drive north to Casino Rama which is a First Nations casino, hotel, theatre etc. near Orillia Ontario.  About 45 min west or north there are other slots only venues, also attached to horse racing tracks.  So we're not exactly 'underserviced'!

wow, i didn't even know that was a 'thing'; that happened once while my sweetie and i were visiting a casino on the Oregon coast.  good thing the windows were down a bit so we could give the pup a bit of water...the owner arrived eventually...

i grok why sombunall religions have admonitions against gambling -- i have felt the high from 'winning' and then the immediate bad feelings at 'losing'...my sweetie says when she lost, she wanted to keep going to win...

and i'm sure casinos, the empirical examiners of human behaviour they are, know how to manipulate/harness that...

my sweetie & i eventually were asked not to come anymore, because we weren't spending enough at the casino -- we were going to go to the beach, which is beautiful and grand :3

Do people remember those electronic pets from 15 years ago or so. There were smaller than your hands, and you had to regularly do things like feed it etc.  

Well let me tell you, I went to the casino in Hull 15 years ago with a friend who wanted to see the new casino.   Anyway he forgot to feed his electronic pet while at the casino playing and it died.

Thanks Carolla.  I just find it suprising that a place like Toronto doesn't have one.  When the story first came up, I thought it was just an issue with a new casino.

Alex, I sure do!  Tamagotchis  Spelling might be slightly off.

i was surprised too when Toronto suddenly metastasized into the Mega City (made up of smaller cities, villages, etc) it "is" now

If it was up to me, we wouldn't have a Toronto.

But if we have to have a Toronto, I'm glad the Toronto casino will not go ahead. Gambling and lotteries, for the most part, are taxes on people who are bad at math. Casinos just put on a bigger show so that you are mesmerized as they take more of your money than lotteries typically do.

That said, I don't think we can prevent them everywhere, because all you'll do is create underground casinos and card tables, and more people will travel to Vegas and Atlantic City.

The best way to minimize the negative effects of a casino, is to make finite math a requirement for graduating high school. It's easier than calculus and geometry for most people, and it gives you tools to recognize how improbable a life-changing win really is, and how low your expected outcome is of a given wager.

If they taught finite in a required grade 11 math class, I think lottery and casino participation would drop. I'd even bet on it.

Before you give me a "thumbs up", recognize that this principle of teaching kids finite math as a means to combat the allure of lotteries and gambling, is pretty much the same reasoning as my desire to see comparative religion taught in high school to combat the allure of religions. Same idea, different scams.

Hell, my son just finished grade 8 and he understands all this (thanks to his mother, not the school system).

And I've been in favour of a general, comparative religious studies type course in high school since long before I became a UU (we have a curriculum for this, by the way). I took one while doing my BA and found it both valuable and enlightening.

Mendalla

Mendalla

It's sad and unfortunate that Toronto chose not to avail themselves of potential-money-laundering casinos and the organized-crime-funded strip clubs which would inevitably spring up in the area.

Seems Robbie failed his friends.

Shucks -- I sure am disillusioned...

I support comparative religion classes in school.  In Alberta, the course is called World Religions.

Yes, comparative religion should be taught in all high schools.

However it is an option and I would wonder how often it is actually offered.  I tried to take it in Grade 12 (36 years ago) and was un able becaue there was not enough interest.

I would argue that such a course, or at least the basic introductory material, needs to be part of the mandatory curriculum.  Possibly woven into the Social Studies Curriculum for example