Please feel free to peruse Deloitte’s Economic Report – Entertainment Complex for yourself. Please note that the report states that its projection figures were derived from Paragon Gaming itself. These figures do not appear to have been independently assessed. We welcome any and all expert opinion on this report – either comment below or send us an email.
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Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged Deloitte, Edgewater Casino, Paragon Gaming, PavCo, report
THE RAW FACTS ABOUT PARAGON GAMING’S PROPOSED EDGEWATER CASINO EXPANSION AT B.C. PLACE
Connection with B.C. Place Stadium: direct link to stadium attendees, with a separated walkway directly to the casino from corporate suites.
Size of gambling space in the expanded Edgewater Casino: 2 football fields
Size of this casino compared to all casinos in western Canada: #1
Number of electronic slot machines in current Edgewater Casino: 520
Number of electronic slot machines in expanded Edgewater Casino: 1,500
Percentage of electronic slot revenues estimate to come from problem gamblers: 35%
Number of studies done in B.C. to determine the social, crime and financial costs of problem gamblers in this province: none
Cost of policing, addictions, suicides, fraud, courts related to problem gamblers using this casino: unknown
Estimated annual cost of a problem gambler from missed work, fraud, bankruptcies, receiverships, embezzlements: $13,200
Date that B.C. Lottery Corporation chair Richard Turner buys shares in Paragon’s Alberta business: 2003
Date that Turner discloses that interest: 2005
Date that Turner resigns from BCLC board: late 2005
Date that Paragon Gaming purchases Edgewater Casino out of bankruptcy and installs Turner on the board of Paragon: summer 2006
Amount of donation by Richard Turner to B.C. Liberals while Paragon’s bid is awaiting a decision by Pavco in 2009: $50,000
Time between Pavco’s invitation to two short-listed companies responding to a request for expressions of interest in this $450-million project and its announcement of Paragon as the preferred proponent: less than 11 weeks
Normal time for big government projects to determine the best proponent, according to Partnerships B.C.: 12-16 months.
Number of minutes spent debating Edgewater’s expanded casino by Vancouver City Council: 0
Projected return of expanded Edgewater casino to City of Vancouver: $10 million in new revenue from gambling
Projected revenue to City of Vancouver from Edgewater’s original casino in 2004: $10-12-million in new revenues
Actual annual return of Edgewater Casino to City of Vancouver over the past two years: $6.3 million
Promise to arts groups and charities in 2004: increased funding
What charities got in 2010: 14% less than they got in 1995
What BC Lottery Corporation got in 2010: about three times as much revenue as 1995.
Promise to bingo players and their funding recipients in 2004: New Planet Bingo hall at Edgewater
Status of promise in 2011: Never delivered
Number of slot machines in Paragon’s only Las Vegas operation, a sports bar: 15
Source of Paragon’s financing for Vancouver: unknown
Number of jobs promised by Paragon in 2010 bid for a casino in Missouri: 573
Number of jobs calculated by the Missouri Department of Economic Development for the same project: 280
Estimated annual revenue by Paragon in Missouri bid: $103.4 million
Estimated real new annual revenue calculated by the Missouri independent review of the same project: $21.7 million
Status of Paragon bids to build casinos in Sugar Creek, Missouri; Moncton, New Brunswick; Oxnard, California; and Ventura County, California: all failed
Answer of Unite Here, a union of 100,000 gaming workers across North America, to the question: “Is Paragon really the right company to take on this project?”: “no”
Disturbing event that occurred at Paragon’s Cree River Casino outside Edmonton in August 2010: customer murdered after a fight in a lounge that spilled outside.
The two best places to meet gangsters in B.C., according to Fred Pinnock, former Commander, Integrated Illegal Gambling Enforcement Team: in jails and in casinos
Hours of shifts of loan sharks at River Rock Casino revealed in Oct. 2006 murder trial of loan shark Lily Li: 24/7
Percentage increase in gambling-related crime reported by Richmond RCMP after River Rock’s establishment: 400%
Percentage of money-laundering and terrorism financing cases discovered in 2008-9 that took place in casinos, according to FINTRAC: 20%
Date that RCMP’s Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement Team issued a report to the provincial government warning of “extreme vulnerability” of casino industry to organized crime–money laundering, infiltration, loan sharking: January, 2009
Date that B.C.’s Integrated Illegal Gambling Enforcement Team was disbanded by the provincial government: February, 2009
Date that BC Lottery Corporation was fined $670,000 by FINTRAC for repeated failure to monitor suspicious transactions, the first fine of its kind in Canada: Summer, 2010
Number of dollars involved in suspicious cash transactions at 2 casinos in Metro Vancouver, including $460k in 20’s in plastic bags, and a suitcase with $1.2 million in casino chips, revealed by CBC in 2010: $8 million.
Reaction of Insp. Baxter, head of RCMP Proceeds of Crime Unit, to these transactions: “suspicious”
Reaction to these transactions of Rich Coleman, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor-General, also in charge of raising revenues through gambling in B.C.: “not suspicious”
Number of sentences in Vancouver city staff’s 55-page report on the B.C. Place rezoning mentioning organized crime or money-laundering: 1
Amount listed in Deloitte report on this project as an annual capital payback from B.C. Lottery Corporation to Paragon: $16.9 million
Estimated increase in business over Edgewater’s current revenues: 180%
Percentage of North American casino customers who live within 45 minutes of the casino: 90%
Paragon’s estimate of the number of gamblers expected to come to Vancouver every day exclusively to gamble in the new casino and stay in its 648 new hotel rooms: 548.
Feb. 2011 comment by veteran hotel broker Angus Wilkinson on the demand for new hotels needed in the city: “This city doesn’t need another single hotel room.”
Amount that would have to be charged per night for a new hotel to survive financially in Vancouver, according to Wilkinson: $400/night
Average hotel room rate in Vancouver in 2010: $166/night
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Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged addiction, Angus Wilkinson, B.C. Lottery Corporation, B.C. Place Stadium, bankruptcy, BCLC, crime, Deloitte, Edgewater Casino, embezzlement, gambling, gaming expansion, hotel rooms, IIGET, Integrated Illegal Gambling Enformcement Team, loan sharks, Missouri, New Brunswick, Paragon Gaming, PavCo, Planet Bingo, Podmore, policing, problem gamblers, Proceeds of Crime Unit, prostitution, RCMP, Richard Turner, slot machines, Unite Here Local 40
Indian Casinos: Wheel Of Misfortune
Reprinted from Time Magazine, Monday, Dec. 16, 2002. By Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele
Maryann Martin presides over America’s smallest tribe. Raised in Los Angeles in an African-American family, she knew little of her Indian ancestry until 1986, when at age 22 she learned that her mother had been the last surviving member of the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians. In 1991, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) certified Martin and her two younger brothers as members of the tribe. Federal recognition of tribal status opened the door for Martin and her siblings to qualify for certain types of government aid. And with it, a far more lucrative lure beckoned: the right to operate casinos on an Indian reservation.
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Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged BIA, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Diana Bennett, MaryAnn Martin, Palm Springs, Paragon Gaming, Scott Menke, Supreme Court, US Congress
Here’s what happened when Richmond, B.C.’s small Bridgeport Casino expanded to become the River Rock Casino. Vancouver Sun, October 25, 2007. Also see “Richmond sees rash of casino-related crime” on canada.com.
Casino a crime magnet: RCMP
The opening of River Rock Casino in Richmond has led to a quadrupling of casino-related crime and allowed new organized crime groups to gain a foothold in the city, according to an internal RCMP report obtained by The Sun:
This is a long video, but engaging and worth watching. It focuses to some extent on the impacts of gambling when it is placed near residential areas, but it is full of information relevant to any casino application in North America.
https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5340854873840831873
Bob Goodman is a Professor of Economic Development, Urban Planning and Environmental Design at Amherst in Massachussetts. He was retained in the early 90s by the Ford Foundation to carry out a study of the economic costs and benefits of legalized gambling. The original study was done for local governments who were trying to decide whether to allow gambling expansion. He has produced a number of major studies and economic analyses of gambling expansion throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and has been hired by both Democrat and Republican administrations and sat on numerous federal committees.
The video of Goodman was is from a 2008 public hearing for a proposed gambling expansion in Philadelphia. His study of over 200 towns has shown that with very few exceptions the introduction of gambling has had serious adverse affects on business and local economies.
It should be noted that Goodman comes from a union family and has a strong concern for jobs (he’s currently working on the job crisis in Detroit). He makes clear that he has no moral objections to gambling, and confesses that he gambles a little himself and has played in poker tournaments.
Click here for a summary of his report Legalized Gambling: Public Policy and Economic Development Issues (pdf). It summarizes his testimony before Congress and was published in the Fall 1995 edition of Economic Development Review.
UPDATE: here is a fuller summary of issues with the Edgewater Casino expansion (PDF with hyperlinks).
This post is for those interested in some of the more technical details surrounding the Edgewater Casino application. To read the full application, visit the City of Vancouver site.
1. No Adequate Notice to Public
The application before Council is described as a re-zoning application by PavCo (crown corporation BC Pavilion Co). Included, but not detailed in the public notice, is a second application by Edgewater Casino for a by-law amendment licensing approximately 1000 new slot machines and 75 new slot machines; Notices mailed only to residents within a 2 block radius of the project, etc.
No notice to public of scale of expansion: gaming floor equivalent to two NFL football fields (114k sq. ft)
a) Calculation of expected revenues only, no calculation of expected costs–policing, counseling, housing homeless;
b) No report on mental health and addiction issues/social ills;
c) Policing report is one paragraph long. Only one sentence respecting organized crime, money laundering. No estimate of impact or cost to manage. No weapons policy or enforcement provisions in a casino/hotel/sports complex. No reference to the RCMP report cautioning about extreme vulnerability to organized crime and infiltration.
d) Background check of Paragon Gaming–corporate profile misrepresented in public materials. No assessment of suitability to operate a major project of this scale.
PavCo represents that there is no risk to the taxpayer in the corporate structure of the project; however:
The BC Lottery Corporation Facility Development Commissions (FDC) and Accelerated Facility Development Commissions (AFDC) cover roughly 42% of casino capital development expenses.
Do FDC’s and AFDC’s extend to ancillary buildings such as hotels, restaurants, theatres, and parkades?
Projections indicate the cost of the complex will be approximately $450 million. 42% is almost $190 million in public money. The BC Lottery Corporation has budgeted for capital expenditures of $346 million over the next 3 fiscal years. What percentage of that will go into the Edgewater development?
a) Public disclosure of all financial commitments
b) Public disclosure of the deal structure: Is there an incentive to overbuild? How are expenses calculated and netted out?
a) BC Lottery Corporation board chair Richard Turner purchases shares in Paragon Gaming (operating in Alberta) in 2003. Share purchase violates board code of conduct, and is not disclosed until 2005.
b) In late 2005 Turner resigns from BCLC board. Summer 2006 Paragon Gaming purchases Edgewater Casino out of bankruptcy and installs Turner on the board of Paragon.
c) Fall 2008, City plan for Northeast False Creek is amended to permit major casino at request of PavCo.
d) March 2009, PavCo puts out an RFEI (Expressions of Interest), with an 18 day window. Only two respondents, including Paragon, reply. While the Paragon bid is before PavCo during the RFP phase one month later, Turner issues a $50k cheque to the BC Liberal Party. Paragon Gaming is the successful bidder
e) Autumn 2009 Turner places a phone call to Minister Kevin Krueger advising that Paragon will withdraw if the roof is not built per plans.
What were all the communications between Richard Turner and PavCo in the period 2005-2009?
2006: Richmond loan shark Lily Li is murdered. Evidence emerges at trial that loan sharks operate on shifts 24/7 inside River Rock Casino;
2009, January: RCMP special unit IIGET (Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement Team) issues a report to government warning of “extreme vulnerability” of casino industry to organized crime–money laundering, infiltration, loan sharking. No resources to investigate suspected money laundering. Concerns expressed about perception of conflict of interest and corruption. Most information redacted from report.
2009. February: IIGET disbanded
2010/ Summer: BC Lottery Corporation fined by FINTRAC for repeated failure to monitor suspicious transactions. First fine of its kind in Canada.
2010/August-October: CBC investigates over $8 million in suspicious transactions at 2 casinos in Metro Vancouver, including $460k in 20’s in plastic bags, and a suitcase with $1.2 million in casino chips.
Insp. Baxter, head of Proceeds of Crime Unit, calls transactions suspicious. Solicitor General Rich Coleman, also responsible for gaming, disagrees that transactions are suspicious and publicly disagrees with Baxter.
Conclusion: Weak BCLC enforcement of rules of conduct and poor compliance and oversight of casinos, leaving the industry vulnerable to uncontrolled criminal conduct and potentially to infiltration.
All other projects and operations are on First Nations reserves in the US and Canada. All are small market. No international tourism expertise. No expertise with the Asian market.
BC’s model: Closed door bidding process with a single (geographically pre-selected) casino applicant, and no public input.
By contrast, Missouri recently awarded a casino license in an open, public, competitive bidding process, with multiple applicants and more than one physical location. The successful bidder demonstrated both strong community support via a referendum, and strong local roots in the community. Paragon Gaming was one of the bidders in this process, but was unable to garner a single vote of support from the Missouri Gaming Commission.
US small market casino operations have notoriety, particularly vis-à-vis political corruption. In more than one instance, individuals with some connection to Paragon Gaming or their advisors have been implicated, charged, or convicted on political corruption charges. A detailed background check on Paragon Gaming is recommended, including investigation of the relationship of Paragon principles with Milton McGregor and Robert Sigler (shareholder in Paragon Gaming Missouri) of Alabama.
Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged BC Liberals, BC Lottery Corp, BC Pavilion Corp, BCLC, CBC, FINTRAC, gambling, gaming expansion, IIGET, issues, Kevin Krueger, LIly Li, loan shark, murder, Paragon Gaming, PavCo, RCMP, T. Richard Turner
Above, before Edgewater mega-casino (and before the white stadium roof was replaced by spiky retractable roof). In the photo directly above, you can see the existing Edgewater casino which occupies the green glass building in the forefront, also known as the Plaza of Nations built for Expo ’86. The City plans to allow the demolition of this glass building. The new Edgewater Casino has triple the capacity of the current operation.
Below, planned Edgewater mega-casino butted up against the Cambie bridge end of BC Place Stadium. It looks as if the huge stadium girders have been downplayed in these drawings. Don’t be fooled; it’s enormous. It only looks modest because it’s adjacent to a massive stadium.
A picture is worth a thousand words. What are yours? Write the Mayor and Council and tell them what you think. Public hearings are this Thursday, Feb. 17, sometime after 7:30 pm, so don’t delay.
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Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged 1980s, cramped, Edgewater Casino, faux-Gehry, gaming expansion, mega-casino, powder blue, purple, urban planning
Three members of our Vancouver Not Vegas! Coalition speak out against the proposed Edgewater mega-casino.
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Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged BC Place, corruption, developers, development, Edgewater Casino, Edgewater mega-casino, gambling, gaming expansion, Indian casinos, Paragon Gaming, PavCo, River Cree Casino, Sandra Garossino, Sandy Garossino, sleaze, US, Vancouver City Council
This casino plan can be defeated. It’s looking promising, but we need your help to win. No Dice!
1. Sign our petition (top left of page).
2. Sign up to speak City Council at the Feb. 17 public hearings – Tell them “No Dice.” Dial 311 or 604-873-7191. Or simply come sit in the gallery with us.
3. Write to Vancouver Mayor and Council. Use the City of Vancouver feedback form or Click here to write your own email. mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca, gregor.robertson@vancouver.ca, michael.magee@vancouver.ca, geoff.meggs@vancouver.ca, tim.stevenson@vancouver.ca, ellen.woodsworth@vancouver.ca, suzanne.anton@vancouver.ca, david.cadman@vancouver.ca, andrea.reimer@vancouver.ca, kerry.jang@vancouver.ca, clrlouie@vancouver.ca, heather.deal@vancouver.ca, george.chow@vancouver.ca, vancouvernotvegas@gmail.com
4. Sign our Petition.
5. Volunteer! Send us an email.
Thank you, Vancouver! This is OUR home. Don’t let them roll the dice on our city’s future.
Vancouver Not Vegas opposes the proposed expansion of Edgewater Casino and calls for a moratorium on all expansion of gambling in Vancouver.
Posted in Edgewater Casino
This is the first anniversary of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Today Shane Koyczan joins our coalition against the Edgewater mega-casino and against gaming expansion in Vancouver and in BC in general. You probably remember Shane’s electric slam poetry performance at the 2011 Games ceremony – if you don’t, you can see it below. Thanks to Shane for lending his name to this fight. “We are More!”
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq_xddkO064]
