Torstar Corp., owner of Canada’s Toronto Star and other newspapers, has announced it will launch an online casino to help pay for its journalism.
In a news release the corporation announced, “We are excited at the prospect of participating in a regulated online Ontario gaming market with a made-in-Ontario product.”
The century-old Torstar was recently purchased by an investment company, Nordstar, whose co-owner Paul Rivett commented, “Doing this as part of Torstar will help support the growth and expansion of quality community-based journalism.”
Residents of Ontario spend about $500 million on online gaming, said the company, with the great majority of it going to outside the country to illegal offshore websites.
Currently only the provincial government can offer online gaming, but lawmakers have been discussing allowing other licensed companies to also offer it.
Rivett added, “We want to ensure the new marketplace is well represented with a Canadian, Ontario-based gaming brand so that more of our players’ entertainment dollars stay in our province.”
Torstar has hired a gaming industry consultant to help it determine if such a venture would be profitable.
Richmond Hill city councilor Tom Muench is skeptical that this is a good role for a newspaper. He commented in an email to CBC News: “I think it’s fair to say that if a casino was to pop up in communities say six months ago, many local Torstar-owned papers would write a concerned local story.” He added, “If the federal government propped up the media with government tax dollars and now with casinos, how do we assure a strong independent news and media industry?”
