Pinnacle Gaming Solutions, owned by David Moretto of North Vancouver, recently filed suit in the British Columbia Supreme Court against the B.C. Lottery Corporation, alleging BCLC misled the company regarding a casino development on Tsleil-Waututh land. Pinnacle claims the lottery corporation gave the impression an application for a casino would likely be approved, according to the lawsuit. “BCLC was particularly in favor of the proposed gaming facility on Tsleil-Waututh tribal lands as there were no casino or gaming facilities on the North Shore and no other gaming facilities proposed for the North Shore,” court documents state.
According to the lawsuit, dating back to October 2007 Moretto was retained by leaders of several First Nations, including the Tsleil-Waututh, to advance their economic interests through “the prospect of developing gaming facilities on their lands.” Tsleil-Waututh tribal officials hired Pinnacle to act as an agent regarding a casino development on their land, including talking to the BCLC and arranging licensing. In return, Pinnacle was to be paid a percentage of the casino’s gross revenues.
Court documents claim between 2008 and 2015, Pinnacle representatives met with the BCLC and researched proposed gaming facilities that potentially could generate “significant profits.” The BCLC requested a feasibility study requested that Pinnacle presented in June 2012, indicating “market demand and suitable conditions for the Tsleil-Waututh’s proposed gaming project was largely consistent with an earlier study conducted by BCLC.”
However, Moretto and Pinnacle later learned the BCLC already granted exclusive development rights for a North Shore gaming facility to Playtime Gaming, owned by Tom Nellis and sold to Gateway Casinos and Entertainment at the end of December. Pinnacle contends the company incurred substantial financial losses as a result of being misled by the BCLC. “In particular, the representations made by BCLC about the likelihood of being granted approval for the proposed gaming facility on Tsleil-Waututh lands were entirely false,” the lawsuit states.
Pinnacle has asked the court to award damages based on “negligent misrepresentation and interference with economic relations” but did not name a dollar amount in the lawsuit. None of the allegations has been proven in court and no response has been filed yet to the suit.
In 2013 Playtime proposed building a 40,000 square foot community gaming center with 300 video gaming machines on the North Vancouver waterfront. The majority of the city council rejected the proposal. Last year Playtime proposed another community gaming center in the Shipyards district of North Vancouver which also was rejected. Complicating the situation at that time was the fact that another company owned by Nellis donated more than $11,000 to City of North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto’s election campaign.
At public meetings held in regard to Playtime’s casino license application last year, Moretto demanded to know when Playtime had been given the exclusive rights to North Shore gaming facilities. Nellis and the BCLC’s Greg Walker said they had been working on it for about five years. Nellis added the BCLC had given Playtime permission to transfer an existing gaming license in Nanaimo to North Vancouver if the project was approved.
