New Casino Seeks to Add More Slots

Manitoba's newest casino is experiencing a problem in handling its customers, because business has been so good. The casino is having a hard time accommodating the number of customers who want to gamble on the slot machines or play a hand of blackjack on the gaming tables.

The successful South Beach Casino is located on the Brokenhead First Nation near Grand Beach, and is a new business that opened just over a year ago.

The operators of the native-owned casino let on that some gamblers have to wait so long in line to use slot machines that some just opt to give up and leave.

Chair of the South Beach board Furlon Baker said that the casino is seeking for permission from the province to have the number of slot machines increased from the current 300.

"Our goal is to double what we have," he said in an interview. "We need at least a minimum of about 150 machines more to be able to accommodate the demand."

Provincial officials have turned down the requests from the casino so far. The government said that it will not consider adding machines until May of next year, as outline in the terms of its agreement with South Beach.

Wednesday, 30 August 2006
Darren G. Strachan