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Elora Drops Guard to Slot Machines
Something has changed significantly in Elora, Ontario. Seven years
ago, slot machines were a hotly contested topic so much so that 1,500
people turned out to a public meeting debating slot machine expansion at
the Grand River Raceway in Elora. The debate over slot machines divided
the community and led to a legal battle in the Superior Court and the
Ontario Municipal Board. Now, in 2008, placing additional slot machines
in the raceway in Elora was only enough of an issue to draw 12 people to
the meeting.
David Copp, a resident of Salem, is convinced that weather had
something to do with the low turn out, but mostly he takes it as a sign
that most people find it useless to fight the expansion of slot machines
and the gambling industry.
The owners of Grand River Raceway, the Grand River Agricultural
Society, is requesting that the Wellington Township make an amendment to
a bylaw that currently limits the number of slot machines they are
allowed to operate to 200. General Manager of the Grand River
Agricultural Society, Ted Clarke, says there is room to expand their
numbers to by 20 or 30 more slot machines. The slot machines are
operated by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.
“There is a demand for more product than we can deliver at this
time,” said Clarke.
“All other sites are able to operate in a manner that has no cap, and
the OLG just simply fills demand as they see it.”
Since Grand River Raceway opened in 2003, the Ontario Lottery and
Gaming Corp has collected close to $150 million in slot machine
revenues.
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