A “successful” reopening of Burnaby’s casino is once again putting money back into city coffers, says a new report.
A lot of money.
The Grand Villa casino closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but reopened on July 1 of this year. Burnaby receives 10% of net revenues from the casino, but with it closed, the city hadn’t received a payment since April 2020, says a city staff report presented to council on Monday.
On Oct. 20, the province informed Burnaby that it would be receiving $3,273,221 in gaming revenue for the period of July 1 to Sept. 30, said the report.
The amount would have been more, but the city has to share some of the losses incurred by the Grand Villa during the shutdown.
The report lists a net loss of $2,440,201 attributable to the Grand Villa Casino during the pandemic closure. The city’s share of that loss is $81,340, said the report.
Despite having to share some of the losses, the overall revenue payment received by the city is an “increase over the average quarterly revenue of approximately $2.9 million seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2017 to early 2020,” said the report.
These are the amounts the City of Burnaby received each year since 2016.
- 2016: $10,715,090
- 2017: $11,015,359
- 2018: $12,558,049
- 2019: $11,892,514
- 2020: $5,342,091
According to the report, the city has more than $82 million in the gaming reserve and $10 million in gaming interest revenue.
The eligibility criteria for use of casino gaming revenue includes operating expenditures and/or capital projects that “serve to protect or improve Burnaby’s environment, including beautification, heritage, public safety, international relations, arts and culture or other projects or programs at the discretion of council.”
In past years, some of the gaming revenue has been used to pay legal costs of fighting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, according to comments by former-mayor Derek Corrigan to the NOW.
