The development of a gaming hall at the Bell Center promises to be difficult for Loto-Québec. The borough of Ville-Marie warns that the public corporation will not only have to obtain the approval of the Regional Public Health Department (DRSP) of Montreal before carrying out its project, but also to ensure its social acceptability. A municipal councilor from the borough already promises to vigorously oppose its realization.
The file rebounded at the municipal council on Tuesday when a citizen questioned the independent councilor for the district of Peter-McGill, Serge Sasseville, about the project of Loto-Québec and Groupe CH, owner of the Montreal Canadiens, to convert a restaurant from Bell Center in a gaming hall equipped with hundreds of video lottery terminals and sports betting terminals.
Serge Sasseville affirmed that he would not hesitate to express loud and clear his opposition to the project so that it never sees the light of day. “I am viscerally opposed to Loto-Québec’s plan to open a gaming room at the Bell Centre,” he said. It’s a neighborhood where we already have huge problems with crime, vulnerable people, homelessness, violence, drug trafficking and prostitution. So it’s out of the question for such a project to be open at the Bell Centre, as far as I’m concerned. »
Quoting Bette Davis in All About Eve, he issued this warning: “Fasten your seatbelt because the road is going to be bumpy. »
The government of François Legault has already indicated that before moving forward with its project, Loto-Québec should obtain a favorable opinion from the DRSP of Montreal and ensure a net reduction in the number of devices. video lottery in the territory.
As no project has yet been submitted to the DRSP of Montreal, it has not yet pronounced on the subject.
The gaming room would be set up in the premises of the former 1909 Taverne Moderne restaurant, adjacent to the Bell Center and now closed. This mini-casino would extend over three floors.
By-law
However, the project will have to obtain the consent of local elected officials, since the use of a casino or amusement hall is not authorized in the Bell Center under the current regulations of the Ville-Marie borough. For now, however, no project has been submitted to the borough.
The borough of Ville-Marie says it is ready to examine the project when it is submitted to it, but specifies that a “rigorous analysis” of its social impacts will have to be carried out. “What we want is for the two promoters of the project, Groupe CH and Loto-Québec, to ensure the social acceptability of the project and obtain a favorable opinion from Public Health”, indicated Simon Charron, political attaché to the borough of Ville-Marie, headed by mayoress Valérie Plante.
On February 22, after The Press had revealed the existence of this gambling hall project, the CEO of Loto-Québec, Jean-François Bergeron, had confirmed at the microphone of Paul Arcand, of 98.5, that discussions had been underway for several months on this subject. “Ideally, it would be done already,” he said. “Currently, on the island of Montreal, there are about 410 doors behind which we offer games of chance that are not signed Loto-Québec, that represents 3,000 machines,” he added, specifying that, according to him, the number of establishments hosting slot machines was too high.
Mr. Bergeron had indicated that according to the plans, the gaming room would be open seven days a week, possibly between noon and 3 a.m. He had acknowledged that the gambling hall would be accessible from the street.
Mayor Plante, for her part, expressed some reservations. “There has to be social acceptability. That is essential. We also want the promoters, the CH and Loto-Québec, to present a project that will be acceptable to the Public Health Department, ”she said last February.