Although no concrete plan is in place, the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce is buzzing over the potential construction of a new casino, even though its only in the exploratory stage.
City officials only are looking into a possible casino proposal, but even that simple act has locals wondering if longtime talk will come to fruition.
The B.C. Lottery Corporation in early October queried six communities in the region to gauge their interest in hosting a potential casino site. Those communities are Oak Bay, Saanich, Esquimalt, Esquimalt First Nation, Victoria, and the Songhees First Nation as possible locations for a primary casino and possible secondary operations.
Regulators want to assess the desire to host a casino among the various communities, and the Victoria Chamber of Commerce says a casino would complement the area’s entertainment attractions and boost local tax revenues.
Those revenues could be used to improve social services, emergency services, and local infrastructure, supporters say.
Before a site can be chosen, though, local officials need to run several assessments, including a social impact assessment. Once a host city is chosen, it will have the option to back out at any time if locals decide they don’t want a casino in their community.
