So you don't mind the province "running the booze," and reaping huge profit margins at the expense of the consumer?
Yet, you're ashamed of this exploitation to provide health care? I don't get it.
You don't get it because you weren't paying attention to what I was saying.
First of all, having a "socialized" provincial booze distribution isn't at the expense of the consumer at all....that money is provincial revenue that would otherwise have to be generated by higher general taxes. I'm in favour of socialized booze and gambling, for the same reason I am for socialized health care....in private hands we would be worse off.
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But the purpose of these things were about "control", not to considered a major source of government revenue, to be "expanded" for the purpose of increasing said revenue, so they don't have to raise general taxes as much, which is what they try to avoid. The gov't has lost sight of the original mandate. And once it's done, it's hard to undo. Same goes with charities...they rely far too much on gambling revenues to raise funds, which means it dries up traditional means of raising funds. It's a bad kind of laziness. And if they have to compete with expanded giant privately run casino operations , "charity" casinos will die.
Ontario Place is the obvious choice. Much of the land is essentially closed down, abandoned and farrow now.
Well, if Tory changes his mind about casinos being off the table for Ontario Place, perhaps we could locate Mamoliti's whore houses there too. After all, I can't think of two industries that go more hand-in-hand than gambling & prostitution....it's a natural.
Zeidler's Pods would be perfect, and the Cinisphere could show giant porn films (upgraded to 3D of course).
You might as well get any ideas of glamerous casinos for the waterfront ala Monte Carlo. Gambling has
NEVER been about "entertainment" (not even in Monaco, where it was considered a necessary evil to save the ruling family from bankruptcy), because it isn't entertainment...or "tourist attractions".
Casinos are "schemes" to rake in money....that's why it attracts the riffraff. They aren't legitimate ideas to rejuvenate our waterfront for raise revenue for the benefit of the city, which needs to be all-inclusive.
That said, I'm not saying it should be "banned"....gambling will go on whether we like it or not, so it should be a "controlled substance" to prevent it from becoming a big problem (and keep out the riffraff as much as possible).
If we are getting one, it should either be somewhere out in the boonies, and not eat up any of our waterfront, which is about other things. But then again, the western section of the CNE grounds would be a good spot. The Ontario Government Building has already been operated as a casino, and if you squint the right way, the building does have a Monte Carlo Casino sorta look to it. That building isn't big enough, so they could include the two underused old CNE buildings around it (Horticulture & Arts & Crafts buildings). That section of the CNE grounds is actually not even part of the CNE anymore. In fact, the CNE is such a shadow of its former self, I only like it for nostalgic reasons...it should probably be put out of its misery and the entire EX grounds completely redesigned for something useful and year-round.
