Valérie Plante warmly welcomed Loto-Québec’s gaming room project at the Bell Center on Wednesday, pointing out that a vulnerable population lives downtown.
City Hall’s support for the project will be conditional on public health support, the mayor said.
“There has to be social acceptability. That is essential. We also want the promoters – Loto-Québec and Groupe CH – to present us with a project that will be acceptable for public health,” said Ms.me Plant during a press briefing.
Loto-Québec has been presenting its gaming hall project at the Bell Center to several government authorities for several months. We would like to install several hundred slot machines as well as sports betting terminals.
The state corporation also presents as a project that would allow a “reduction of the gambling offer in Montreal” and as a spearhead of the “fight against illegal online gambling”.
For the mayoress of Montreal, however, the project raises the same “concerns” as the casino project in Griffintown, buried by Loto-Québec some fifteen years ago.
“When in the same week I talk about the vulnerability of part of the population of Ville-Marie, I cannot completely distance the two issues,” said Ms.me Plant. “Giving the project to the promoters is the right thing to do. But the concerns that existed with respect to the project in Griffintown are quite similar. »