Here’s a list of the corporate heavies shilling for a piece of the gambling pie at Queen’s Park.
The company built by Indigo head Heather Reisman’s husband, Gerry Schwartz, boasts business partnerships with aerospace and military hardware companies and private health care as well as investments in Tropicana Las Vegas and casinos in Edmonton, Lethbridge and two in Calgary, operating 2,900 slot machines, 90 table games, 35 poker tables and 40 video lottery terminals.
The sports mega-company known for taking fans of their pro franchises for suckers is also in property management and owns stakes in Rogers and Bell. Company chair Larry Tanenbaum is best buds with Ontario Lottery and Gaming chair Paul Godfrey. MLSE’s board of directors includes Dale Lastman, who also sits on OLG’s board. Has hired Etobicoke boy and former Canadian Alliance candidate John Capobianco, who defected to the Rob Ford camp partway through the 2010 municipal election, to do its lobbying at Queen’s Park.
The largest gaming outfit in the world (casinos, resorts and golf courses) recently lost CFO Jonathan Halkyard, who’s widely credited with helping reduce the company’s industry-high $20 billion debt.
The first of the Las Vegas high rollers to signal its interest in a Toronto casino reported $200 million in first-quarter losses this year. It’s currently embroiled in litigation over its CityCenter mega-project on the Vegas strip over construction delays. The company’s plans for an $800 million casino-hotel complex near Washington, DC, was recently rejected over political concerns that the gaming market is over-saturated.
