OLG Slots Facility at Sudbury Downs Closed Down on June 1st, 2008 Because of Employee Strike

Due to an employee strike, the OLG slots at Sudbury Downs have been temporarily shutdown. The slots establishment is managed by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming and is separate from the horse racing operations of the Sudbury Downs. The OLG Casino Brantford has also temporarily shutdown due to the employee strike. In a statement, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming commented that despite their best efforts, talks to reach a fair agreement.

As the collective bargaining agreement between the management of the casino and the employees union ended on June 1st, 2008 at 12:01 a.m., the OLG slots facility at the Sudbury Downs was shutdown in order to make sure that the customers will be safe and the honesty of the games will be maintained because of the expected work stoppage.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming commented that they are working to resolve the matter and apologize to their customers that were inconvenience about the matter. They are hoping to reopen the casino as soon as possible. OLG said that they have been contributing to the local economy for a number of years.

About 5% of gross slots profits on the first four hundred fifty slot machines and 2% on the rest of the machines is paid to the City of Sudbury. The payment to the City of Greater from the slots establishment since it opened for business on November 26th, 1999 is now more than $17.2 million.

Darren G. Strachan,
Monday, 23 June 2008