Derek Baldwin

Oct 21, 2021

Belleville is in line once again for a portion of gaming proceeds at Shorelines Casino in the city albeit in smaller measure due to pandemic closures of the facility over 18 months of COVID-19 restrictions by the Ontario government.
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) announced Thursday “a second quarter (July 1, 2021 to September 30, 2021) non-tax gaming revenue payment of $590,813 to the City of Belleville for hosting Shorelines Casino Belleville.”

That compares to $883,000 for the same quarter in 2019 and $656,000 for the same quarter in 2020 (including some proceeds from earlier that year).

Since January 2017, the City of Belleville has received almost $11 million in non-tax gaming revenue, the provincial agency stated in a media release.

“Our government is pleased that land-based casinos have reopened safely and are contributing to our provincial economy again,” said Todd Smith, MPP Bay of Quinte.

“Host communities are once again benefiting from local employment and the financial proceeds that support vital services through Municipality Contribution Agreements,” said Smith.

The OLG makes payments to host municipalities 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.

Under the province’s reopening framework, with rigorous public health and workplace safety measures in place, gaming sites were able to resume operations July 16 of this year.

Casino re-opening dates were determined by each service provider in consultation with OLG, depending on their readiness and ability to operate under the mandatory restrictions.

All gaming sites in Ontario resumed operations by August 16, 2021.

To date, host municipalities have received more than $1.76 billion in non-tax gaming revenue.

OLG is a crown agency that oversees gaming entertainment regulations for the Province of Ontario.

Acting in a socially responsible way, OLG conducts and manages land-based gaming facilities; the sale of province-wide lottery games; Internet gaming; and the delivery of bingo and other electronic gaming products at Charitable Gaming Centres.