Casino would be a boon to downtown - Tony Sottile

Re: John Lindsay’s letter “Casino will harm seniors,” which appeared in the Dec. 6 edition of Northern Life.

I know John personally and I have immense respect for his involvement in the community, but in this case I disagree with his opposition to casinos in the Sudbury area.

I remember very well years ago when city council debated this issue and turned down the slots for downtown Sudbury.
They said that it would affect the lives of everyone in Sudbury.

We would become addicted to gambling and crime would increase, attracting undesirables to the community. None of this has occurred.

This resulted in the slots being established in Chelmsford with the city losing out in attracting people to the downtown area.
If the slots were downtown, businesses will benefit immensely.

In the years since, many businesses have closed up shop and restaurants continue to struggle to stay alive.
Downtown merchants have been crying for years to create solutions for their dilemma.

A casino in downtown Sudbury would solve all their problems, attracting hundreds of people who otherwise travel to Chelmsford daily.

This would also create an environment which would attract more investments in Sudbury, with more locally-owned shops being established in the downtown and obviously more restaurants to serve the public.

At the moment, very few restaurants are able to survive in the Durham-Elm Street area, unlike most cities which have many restaurants on their main streets.

There are also two other benefits if the casino were in the downtown area:

1. Since most people must travel west to Chelmsford, there would obviously be less traffic on Highway 144, with Sudburians travelling a shorter distance, especially in the winter months, which makes for hazardous driving conditions.

2. More seniors, who are one of the largest groups supporting the slots in Chelmsford, would be out interacting with the public, socializing with their neighbours and not sitting at home twiddling their thumbs watching “Days of Our Lives” every afternoon.

Yes, John, we know that the house always wins, but this is a fact of life that we all realize and accept as we spin the wheel and have fun at the same time.

Tony Sottile
Greater Sudbury