Niagara Falls given $3.8M from OLG as host municipality for two casinos
Published January 19, 2022 at 12:22 pm
Having two casinos in the city is paying off big dividends for Niagara Falls as they were just handed a $3,889,163 from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).
In their role as the host municipality of both Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara, the city gets quarterly cheques from the OLG and has collected more than $172 million since December 1996 when Casino Niagara opened.
“We are happy that host gaming municipalities received payments this past quarter through Municipality Contribution Agreements,” said Ontario Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy.
Bethlenfalvy believes once COVID-19 restrictions are done, casinos will play a key role in helping communities rebound. “Once public safety restrictions are lifted again, land-based casinos will continue to play a vital role in the economic recovery of our communities.”
All casinos were open during the third quarter (October 1 to December 31, 2021) and had their capacity limits lifted on October 25 for the balance of the year.
However, both of Niagara Falls casinos were shut down on January 5 when the province saw COVID-19 numbers spike as the Omicron variant sent cases skyrocketing.
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Premier Doug Ford has hinted he may lift some restrictions later this week but at the moment, the casinos will remain closed until at least January 26.
OLG makes payments to host communities under the Municipality Contribution Agreements, using a prescribed formula consistently applied across all sites in Ontario that is based on a graduated scale of gaming revenue at the hosted site or sites.
So far, the OLG has given host communities in Ontario almost $1.8 billion in non-tax gaming revenue.
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