The Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation (SGC) was established under the Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation Act of 1994. The corporation consists of seven persons appointed by the lieutenant governor of the province. Three of the persons are nominated by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. The SGC operates four casinos.
On 26 January 1996, Saskatchewan opened its first permanent casino – Casino Regina. The casino facility is located within the historic Union Station railroad building in downtown Regina. The casino provides 25,000 square feet of gaming space and entertainment space, with 500 slot machines and forty-one table games, a poker room, restaurant, lounge area, and bar.
The province added three additional casinos on lands of First Nations peoples later in 1996. The Gold Eagle Casino opened on 1 March in North Battleford. It has 8,800 square feet for gaming with 159 machines and 14 tables. The Northern Lights Casino opened on 6 March in Prince Albert. It is an 8,000 square-foot-facility with 229 machines and 15 tables. The Painted Hand Casino is in Yorktown. Its 1,500-square-foot facility with 108 slots and 16 tables opened on 14 December. The three First Nations casinos employ 414 persons. They are operated by the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority under an agreement with the provincial government.
Casino Regina has generated many positive economic benefits for the province. A report prepared by the Saskatchewan Tourism Authority and released in January 1997 (the most recent statistics available) found that on an annualized basis, the casino generated C$54.3 million in gross output, with 1,112 full-time and part-time positions and $21.5 million in wages. The impact of the casino has been equivalent to the hosting of two Grey Cup Canadian professional football championship games. The report suggested that the casino attracted 101,000 nonlocal visitors who came to Regina specifically to gamble at the casino. While visiting the casino, each one spent an average of $167. Also non-Saskatchewan visitors spent an average of three nights in Regina and spent $41 each night for lodging (Saskatchewan Tourism Authority 1996).
In all there were 1,426,000 casino visits, with only 37% of these coming from Regina residents and another 17 percent from other residents of Saskatchewan. Neighboring provinces of Manitoba and Alberta produced 42% of the visitors. Fewer than 2% of the visits were by persons from the United States or overseas (Saskatchewan Tourism Authority 1996).
When the casino was planned an agreement was negotiated with the province’s charity casinos to allow them to have slot machines. The Regina charity casino had been operating at the Exposition Park. It was first known as Buffalo Buck’s and later as the Silver Sage. It agreed to have machines and give 37 percent of the revenue from the machines to Casino Regina and the Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation. In 1997 the Regina charity casino agreed to close its doors in exchange for a share of the profits of Casino Regina. Also, when Casino Regina opened its doors, the SGC made an agreement with Holland Casinos, a Netherlands government corporation, for that entity to train the staff and oversee the opening of operations. Holland Casinos received part of the casino revenues as well as a fixed fee for its services.
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