After nearly four years, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation recently closed the prequalification process for finding an operator to run Rideau Carleton Raceway’s expanded gaming facility in Ottawa. OLG originally issued the RFPQ in November 2012 cancelled that request at the end of December 2015 since a lease was required before proceeding.
That issue finally has been resolved with a “commercially viable” lease, said OLG spokesman Tony Bitonti, so now the search for a gaming operator can continue. Bitonti said there were “good responses” to the Ottawa gaming RFPQ, however, he declined to state how many groups actually responded. “Public procurements of this nature involve information of a commercially sensitive nature, as a result, names of applicants will not be released by OLG,” Bitonti said.
A spokesman for the Rideau Carleton Raceway said the facility applied to operate the expanded gaming operation, but added he cannot comment beyond that.
Bitonti said in the next few months, OLG will evaluate the submissions and then invite pre-qualified applicants to compete in a request for proposals process. No date has been set for the final procurement stage.
The city has specified to OLG it only would support an Ottawa casino operating at the Rideau Carleton Raceway, with no more than 21 table games added to the venue’s 1,250 slots. The city would get a share of the revenue. The closest competition would be the Hull casino.
OLG’s casino modernization process is continuing in other parts of Eastern Ontario. Last September the agency granted a contract to a partnership led by Great Canadian Gaming, which now operates the Thousand Islands and Kawartha Downs gaming facilities and plans to build a new facility in Belleville. The Kawartha Downs slots will be relocated to Peterborough. Other OLG procurement programs are scheduled or ongoing in other gaming zones across the province.
