In short, what we learn from these is that the bid process for developing the property at B.C. Place Stadium was very short and yielded only 2 bidders – Concord and Paragon. Apologies for size. Each PDF is large – downloading may take a minute.
PavCo Request for Expressions of Interest – Part 1 (nearly 2 MB – if you want a clearer, larger copy, please email us)
PavCo Request for Expressions of Interest – Part 2 (caution: over 4 MB)
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Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged B.C. Place Stadium, Big Dreams Live Here, Concord Pacific, FOI, Paragon Gaming, PavCo, Request for Expressions of Interest, RFEI
From The Province, March 3, 2011
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Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged BC government, BC Pavilion Corp, cancan dancers, casino, editorial cartoon, False Creek, PavCo, Province, The Province, two-drink minimum
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
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
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
Democracy consists, unfortunately, in citizens showing up to meetings. Sad fact, but true!
Please join us:
Chinese Cultural Centre in Chinatown (Stadium-Chinatown skytrain station)
7 pm, Wednesday February 9
(See the Facebook event page)
50 East Pender Street between Carrall and Columbia
(travel instructions to the site, click the link above)
Please come out. You will have fun, meet a mix of people, and feel good about helping us demonstrate our numbers. Bring your ideas and your concerns about the proposed Edgewater mega-casino.
If we approve this mega-casino in Vancouver—if this public land is effectively given away to a sketchy Vegas company on an endless 70 year lease—we will never be able to get rid of it. Is this the image we want for Vancouver, internationally? No other major Canadian city has put a casino in its downtown core, or even close to residential areas. Once we go down this path, we can’t turn around. They don’t just want to put this casino in our downtown, they want to make this the biggest casino in Western Canada, and to have it built by a company that has only ever built truck stop, highway-side, trailer park casinos. The City of Vancouver has not done studies that indicate what the true economic costs of a casino are, but they easily make up a sum in the millions. And for what, $17 million a year? That’s not enough of an inducement for Vancouver – that’s a pittance in the City budget. This is a bad idea. Come out and have your say.
Vancouver will only be forced to make the right decision if the citizens of Vancouver show up and get involved.
Thank you!
This article was first published on October 7, 2010 in BC Business Magazine. To read the original on the BC Business site instead, please click here. We wanted to reproduce the article here because it is an informative, thorough investigation into the salient details of the casino deal. Article is by Nick Rockel; image by Peter Holst. For related materials, please see Vancouver Observer series and Edgewater cannot compete with Singapore for China gamblers. Please note that what Paragon states may differ from actual casino plans, particularly on this question of the ‘destination casino.’ Please stay tuned for future article, and review the Vancouver Observer series (link above) to keep yourselves informed.
The new casino slotted for downtown Vancouver will triple the gambling capacity of the old Edgewater and help pay for a new roof for neighbouring BC Place. Whether the global gambling elite will come to play, as both the developer and province hope, is another matter .
In his black jacket and open- necked shirt, Scott Menke looks ready to play a little roulette, or maybe some Texas hold’em. One morning in late June, the president and co-founder of Las Vegas-based casino developer Paragon Gaming is sitting in the boardroom of his company’s downtown Vancouver office at Plaza of Nations. Menke has just flown in from Edmonton, where his company runs one of its three Canadian casinos. With the confidence of a croupier, he explains how Paragon plans to transform Vancouver into a global gambling destination.
Paragon owns the Edgewater Casino, an underwhelming 30,000-square-foot establishment at the far end of the plaza. But it recently won the right to build a Vegas-style hotel, casino and entertainment complex across the street from here, on a small plot of land next to provincially owned BC Place Stadium. The Edgewater – or rather, its precious gaming licence – will move to the new 780,000-square-foot development, which Paragon aims to finish by 2013.
With 150 tables and up to 1,500 slot machines, the casino portion of the still-unnamed, $450-million project will be more than three times bigger than the Edgewater. But Menke points out that it occupies just 14 per cent of the proposed complex, a branded property that will include two hotels with a combined 650 rooms, plus restaurants, shops, meeting spaces and spa and gym facilities. “Everybody says it’s a casino, but the casino is only 100,000 square feet out of 800,000,” notes the tall Arizona native.
Menke says the Paragon development is an opportunity to bring more visitors to Vancouver. Where 23 per cent of the Edgewater’s customers are from outside the Lower Mainland, Paragon projects that number will at least double at the new property, thanks to a mix of Canadian and international guests.
In other words, the joint won’t rely on Metro Vancouver residents to keep its baccarat tables and hotel rooms full. “We’ll continue to build our local base, but our focus is really on the destination tourism,” Menke says. “We absolutely believe that we’re going to be additive to the market, not competing with other hotels around here.”
Paragon’s Vancouver play is one more step in the expansion of the B.C. gambling industry, which may soon pour more money into provincial coffers than all corporate income taxes combined. Gambling – or gaming, to use the industry euphemism – is a lucrative business. But skeptics say the provincial government is hooked on the revenues it brings while overlooking the economic and social costs of problem gambling. To others, the idea that high rollers from Chicago and Shanghai will flock to a Vancouver casino is far-fetched. And if the province does view gambling as more than a money grab, it isn’t sharing its plan with the public.
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Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged BC government, BC Pavilion Co, Edgewater Casino, gaming expansion, Paragon Gaming, PavCo, Scott Menke
Something we keep hearing in this fight against the massive expansion of the Edgewater Casino is that “it’s on BC government-owned land, so the City of Vancouver can’t stop it.”
Not true. Very much not true.
PavCo (short for BC Pavilion Corporation), the BC government’s crown corporation, is not free to do anything it likes. It is subject to Vancouver city processes and regulations like everyone else. It must go through the rezoning application process for the casino (which is currently much smaller and more hidden away) and it must go through the application process for gaming expansion in Vancouver city limits.
It’s interesting reading.
In it, the province affirms municipal jurisdiction over land use and gaming licenses, and explicitly agrees to abide by local government decisions.
This massive casino expansion smack in the middle of our downtown is not a done deal, and it must not be rubber-stamped by City Councl just because the City is being bullied by the Province. If you want to learn more about why the City of Vancouver is having trouble saying no to the province, read on or look at this excellent series of investigative articles on the Edgewater expansion by the Vancouver Observer.
Comments Off on So you think the stadium lands are BC gov’t property & it can do whatever it likes with them? Not true!
Posted in Edgewater Casino
Tagged City Council, City Hall, gambling, gaming expansion, municipality, Paragon, PavCo, UBCM, Vancouver
The Vancouver Observer has undertaken an excellent series of articles on the proposed Edgewater Casino expansion, irregularities in the process, the problem with a massive casino in a downtown core, and other related issues and questions.
Here are the articles, in chronological order, and the Observer says there are more to come:
August 26, 2010 New Edgewater Casino at BC Place will doubling gambling in the city: does it have to happen?
Sept 15 Vancouver to have one last chance to weigh in on proposal for BC’s largest casino
October 14 Provincial-backed casino requires City approval, but can City say no?
October 14 Community service and arts groups ask City to intervene in gaming development
Nov 4 BC Place casino proposal: lack of independent fairness advisor raises questions
Nov 7 Isn’t it kind of strange that Vancouver would have a super-sized casino downtown? by Emily Barca and Linda Solomon
Dec 1 Casino expansion at B.C. Place may lead to increase in organized crime activity, sources say by Emily Barca
Dec 2 Will B.C. casinos’ bad record on money laundering get worse at B.C. Place casino?
Dec 3 False Creek Residents Association votes against BC Place casino
Feb 7, 2011, 2011 Inside Edgewater Casino by Emily Barca
Feb 9, Paragon of Haste by Ian Reid
Feb 20, More compelling reasons not to bank on casino revenue
Feb 16, The road to Paragon by Ian Reid
March 7, A battle long brewing comes to a head tonight at City Hall
and also:
Live blogging the casino public hearing at City Council
March 9, Menke confirms PavCo partnership began four years ago
March 11, COPE calls on Premier Designate Clark to de-link casino expansion from social services
March 14, Live blogging the casino public hearing at City Council, Day 3
March 16, PavCo’s story gets fishier
April 6, Gambling addict makes mess in casino
April 8, Did Rich Coleman tell the truth about BCLC and Paragon?
April 8, Blunderdome: politics, positioning and a costly retractable roof
April 8, Insular megacasino would add no value to Vancouver’s downtown businesses by Peter Busby and Penny Gurstein
•• April 8, Vancouver Observer, Blunderdome: politics, positioning and a costly retractable roof
April 11, Vancouver Observer, Vancouver, Not Vegas press release: Offering fewer slots is a sign of casino’s desperation
April 12, Vancouver Observer (Ian Reid), Paragon’s place at the BC Liberal table
