City gets $525,000 from racetrack slot revenues

The City of Greater Sudbury received another cheque from the Ontario Lottery Gaming (OLG) Slots at Sudbury Downs Friday in the amount of $525,098.

The payment was for the host municipality's third-quarter share of slots revenue from between October and December in 2006.

To date, Greater Sudbury has received more than $14.3 million in non-tax gaming revenue since the Racetrack Slots facility opened in 1999.

Payments are made on a quarterly basis according to the provincial government's fiscal year, which runs from April to March.

Since opening in the fall of 1999, the facility has attracted more than 4.2 million patrons, according to the OLG.

Each municipality that operates an OLG Slots racetrack facility receives five percent of that facility's gross slot machine revenue for the first 450 machines and two percent for any machines above that number.

All funds are to be used at the discretion of the city council of each municipality.

Tracks and horse people also share revenue, with 20 percent of gross revenues split evenly between the two groups.

The province has dished out more than $1.98 billion to race track owners and horse people since the program was initiated back in 1998.

The government allocates two percent of gross revenue from slot machine at racetrack facilities to a problem gambling initiative for research, treatment and prevention programs. That amount is expected to hit $36 million in 2006-07.