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The president of Las Vegas Sands Corp. outlined his vision for a casino complex in Toronto, saying he would focus on bringing trade shows and conventions to the city.
“It’s not just the casino, it’s not just the hotel, it’s not just retail and dining,” Michael Leven, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands, said at the Economic Club of Canada on Monday afternoon.
“In order to keep these properties, we have to get the trade show and convention business.”
Leven said the proposed Toronto casino would be a “MICE” facility, suitable for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions. While the City of Toronto is competitive when it came to attracting conventions, he argued the facilities are not. The Sands, he said, would change that.
“Company meetings will not go outside the country; they will stay here,” Leven said.
The gambling would not be the focus of the proposed complex. In other Sands properties, gaming represents less than five per cent of the physical space, Leven said.
The Economic Club was the same venue MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren used to get his company’s message out last Tuesday.
Murren said he wants to build an “integrated resort” at Exhibition Place that would include a Cirque du Soleil show and cuisine crafted by renowned local chef Mark McEwan. About 10 per cent of the total floor space would be dedicated to gambling, he said.
The city manager is set to report to council in March on public feedback on a possible casino in Toronto. Public consultations ended on Friday. Council is expected to vote on the matter in April.
Mayor Rob Ford has said he’s in favour of a casino, and would prefer to build it in the Port Lands or at Exhibition Place. Casino opponent Coun. Adam Vaughan has called for the issue to be put to a referendum in the October 2014 municipal election.
A new GTA casino is part of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.’s plan to revitalize the gaming industry.
Thanks for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was once a amusement account it. Glance advanced to far delivered agreeable from you! However, how could we keep in touch?
Citynews: “In order to keep these properties, we have to get the trade show and convention business.” —- From a business point of view, this makes a lot of sense. You can’t just throw-up a casino project and hope that it makes money. You have to know who your customers are going to be, where they are going to come from, and why they would want to come to your facility instead of going somewhere else. The Sands has a casino in Singapore that is next to a lovely site. It’s next to a habour and there’s three parks around the harbour comprised of 250 acres of gardens, with massive greenhouses and artificial high-tech trees. Incidentally, in Singapore they want foreigners to come-in and gamble. There’s a $100.00 per day entrance fee to the casino for the local people, presumably to discourage the locals from going-in.
We have enough Casino in Canada already run by ours government, why let other country come and take ours money away. Have you seen some poor suckers, got addicting to gambling and lost family, house, why there allow Casino here in Toronto ?
Michael Levin should go back to his job as captain of the Love Boat .
Yes the analogy was weak and I can’t defend it but I didn’t have one at hand and the leafs as a handy whipping post but who says whats bad and whats good? and further who says we need anything? Those are not really measurable factors. Women don’t need to spend $1200 on shoes that they will wear once and hurt their feet but they still sell like crazy. Is the problem that they are American? Canadians line up when Americans open up chains here so culturally we don’t really have a problem with it, Tim Horton’s reached the zenith of its popularity while it was owned by an American company.
no one wants this. ugh.
of course fords supports it. the contract workers and low paid can throw what little they have away at the chance to be “rich”. the side effect problems of casinos are well documented. keep them in far off places so people have to go out of their way to get to them.
you’re obviously a degenerate asian gambler
then what do you prefer we do to get more income into the Toronto/city hall? Cutting makes people oppose to it, rising things makes people happy but behind it the financials go worse that will eventually lead to cutting, what else can we go for???
Did you know that in Macau there’s a huge Casino? Believe it or not, the government gives free money to their citizen because of the profit they made through casino… imagine if that happens in Toronto or atleast get the huge profit that can do some good for the city as a whole.
Dear Toronto,
Please think very carefully before you allow these money suckers into your city. Casinos just RAKE in the money (not creating anything tangible). And guess who puts that money into their pockets! Thousands of people thinking that their hard earned $10 will miraculously turn into $100 for them. For one person, yes. But the rest of those thousands of $10 bills adds up to over $10,000 that go into Michael Leven’s pocket. No wonder he is smiling…
You think parking is expensive and bad NOW in downtown, wait until the Gardiner gets plugged up every night until well after midnight!
You guys are being very short sighted, there is a demand for it so they are going to give it to us. We are NOT going to get international travellers when Vegas or macau are still around and if you don’t know macau you just checked out of this argument. Other than Hipsters and Condos Toronto does have much so if there are people trying to do something do be alarmists because the Gardner is going to be packed until midnight either way and its due to poor city planning and badly maintained infrastructure rather than a resort in the city. Also what people do with their money is their business so saying its a waste isn’t a measurable thing you can use as an argument against something because I could say we should eliminate the NHL in Toronto because we never win thus are wasting money.
Skidrow, I think it’s you that’s missing our points, Just because there is demand, doesn’t mean we should roll out the red carpet for these American investors. There is a demand for lots of bad things, doesn’t mean we need them. Your hockey analogy, has as many holes as the Leaf’s net.
Here, here! Until the business plan for this casino, put’s a realistic amount of revenue back into our city and the people who are this city. MGM and any other U.S. casino corporation can keep their roullette and black jack tables. We don’t need this sort of entertainment in downtown Toronto, it benefits few and leaves a trail of suckers and gambling addicts in it’s wake. Go to Vegas if you want to throw your money away.