What’s with this new Edmonton casino, by way of Camrose?

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With a recent Alberta Gaming Liquor Cannabis (AGLC) decision to allow the Camrose Resort and Casino to relocate to Edmonton, the city gets a new gambling house on the southside despite opposition from some area residents, charities, and city officials.

Discussions around the Camrose Resort and Casino relocation have been fraught since an application was first made two years ago, with it ultimately being denied. Now successful in its second bid for relocation, here’s a rundown of how Edmonton landed its newest casino and some of the challenges along the way.

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The move

Camrose Resort and Casino general manager Hany Assal says the new location in Edmonton, at 420 Parsons Rd. S.W., will support greater rural charity pool revenues. The facility is also massive at a whopping 88,000 square feet or about 1.5 football fields.

“I think we’ll be the biggest casino in Alberta,” Assal said.

Once constructed, the Edmonton location of Camrose’s offerings (which doesn’t yet have a name) will rival its competitors. The River Cree Resort and Casino at Enoch Cree Nation, on the edge of west Edmonton, has a combined gaming space of just under 90,000 square feet between its main casino floor and Embers space (smoke-friendly), though that number will rise to 115,000 square feet once the expansion is complete by 2027. Currently, the second-largest casino in the city is PURE Casino with 72,000 square feet of gambling space in southeast Edmonton.

The current casino’s location in Camrose, meanwhile, will remain operating in that town of roughly 19,000 people, about 90 km south of Edmonton.

“Camrose will be always a casino, but we’re changing the licence,” said Assal, explaining that it will allow the Camrose location to operate as a community gaming centre, meaning it will have all of its same gaming options plus the addition of bingo.

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Why the Edmonton location was approved

In its statement on the recently approved Edmonton facility, AGLC said that it gave “careful consideration of objections and support” for the application.

“In balancing all the options, the decision to approve the application will support continuous business operations, provide jobs for Albertans and will significantly improve returns for rural charities with minimal impact to charities assigned to the Edmonton pool,” AGLC said in a news release.

“AGLC has a key responsibility to be a direct contributor to provincial revenue. This relocation will result in significant additional revenue for the Government of Alberta which in turn contributes to the foundational services that Albertans rely on.”

The difference from previous applications

Although the applications for relocation have come in relatively short succession, AGLC views them as fundamentally different. While the location and timeline for the building are similar, the applications differ for a few reasons.

The 2024 application included:

• 88,000 square feet
• 498 slot machines
• 25 table games
• eight poker tables

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The 2022 application was similar with some notable differences:

• 60,000 square feet
• up to 550 slot machines
• 25 table games
• two poker tables
• show lounge and theatre
• purpose-built sports restaurant and bar
• 120-room hotel
• 15,000 square foot entertainment/conference centre

With the exclusion of the hotel, restaurant and convention centre, and a shift to more poker tables and fewer slot games, the recent application was viewed differently by AGLC and the group approved the relocation.

Ordered into receivership

Following a decision from a Court of King’s Bench Justice in late October, Mayfield Investments Ltd., which owns the Camrose Resort and Casino, was ordered into receivership.

Mayfield got the order for failing to repay its debts, which court documents say is more than $38 million, to ATB Financial. The documents show that the legal battle had been underway for roughly two years, with several forbearance agreements having come and gone between the two parties.

The court’s order contained a requirement for a court-appointed receiver to take control of Mayfield assets, including Camrose Resort and Casino, among others. Ernst & Young (EY) was appointed to handle Mayfield and as such is now in control of the casino.

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Despite EY having control of the casino, Mayfield president, Howard Pechet, said it will continue to operate as normal. Pechet also said that Mayfield found a new owner for the casino’s licence, with a portion of the sale of the licence already paid.

“The balance is due when the casino doors open in Edmonton. So they’ve taken and purchased their licence… are moving that licence over to Edmonton, and we won’t have anything to do with that,” said Pechet.

Postmedia attempted to contact the new licence owner, but the individual didn’t respond.

Although Mayfield had been ordered into receivership, Pechet said he believes the relocation to Edmonton will still happen.

“I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

“This will be much better for the (rural) charities.”

Why Edmonton charities are upset about it

Edmonton charities aren’t happy with the relocation of the casino because it will benefit rural charities as opposed to local ones.

“Casino fundraising is a really important source of revenue for the 163 community leagues across the city,” said the communications advisor for the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL), David Berry in July when the second relocation application first cropped up.

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While the local gaming market is expected to earn an additional $19 million, and rural charities will see an increase of more than 50 per cent in their charity pool payments, local charities are predicted to have a five per cent decrease in charity pool payments.

“We’re dealing with charitable organizations and not-for-profits. A small amount is a huge amount to all of these organizations,” said Berry.

Berry said ultimately the community hosting the casino won’t benefit from it.

Alberta’s charitable gaming model

The impact will be felt by Edmonton charities because of AGLC’s charitable gaming model.

The model enables charities and religious groups to operate gaming activities, which allows them to raise money for their organization. The current allocation stipulates that for every dollar of revenue from a slot machine at a traditional casino, 15 cents go towards the host charity of the night, while 17 cents go to the casino operator and 68 cents go to Alberta’s General Revenue Fund minus AGLC’s operating expenses.

Charities also take a slice of the revenue from table games after paying fixed service fees to the casino, which can range from 50 to 75 per cent.

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Garry Smith, a former professor at the University of Alberta with an extensive background in gambling research going back to the 1970s, knows the history of Alberta’s gaming model and how it was developed. He said there are four types of gambling models, including Crown corporations, hybrid operations that include corporations and gambling companies, First Nations, and charitable operations.

Smith said the latter originated in Alberta when the criminal code was amended in 1969 to allow lotteries, which he said function as an umbrella term for a variety of types of gambling.

“(The amendment in) 1969 allowed lotteries and also allowed casinos under certain restrictions. And that’s when Alberta went with the charity model,” said Smith.

“One of the reasons for that, I think, is to sanitize gambling a little bit. Yes, it can be a bad thing, but if we tie it into charities and worthy causes, we won’t catch so much flak for it.”

Many Alberta charities have grown to rely on gambling for a significant portion of their funding, which Berry explained offers the most efficient fundraising opportunity for any charitable group.

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A group that volunteers at a casino for one night, for example, can “on average” generate between $60,000 and $80,000, he said.

Alberta’s charitable gaming model helped raise more than $400 million for charities across the province from 2023 to 2024.

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