Media on Monday afternoon got a sneak peek inside the new Peterborough casino.
The building officially opens at 5 p.m. but members of the media were given a short tour hours earlier. Even then people were already lining up for the official opening.
Thirteen months after breaking ground, there’s a new $49-million dollar attraction in town.
“We have a 230 seat buffet restaurant, a 40 seat a la carte restaurant to go along with our 500 slot machines and 22 table games,”said general manager Bryan Buchanan.
With all that and 188 new jobs, this new casino is a good bet, especially for the city that will get around $6 million a year from casino revenue sharing.
“This new source of revenue will be dedicated to capital infrastructure projects which is very important because we have a lot of work to do, a lot of roads to fix,” said city councillor Lesley Parnell.
Lois Phillip was among the first customers in line waiting to enter. She already has concerns.
“I think they’re going to have to put in a new parking lot because instead of building the new hotel, they’re going to need parking,” she said.
The Peterborough facility was modelled after the one in Bbelleville which opened last year and has proven quite popular. The Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which owns Shorelines is planning to open another new gambling centre in Pickering within the next year and a half.
The sister station of Global Peterborough, 101.5 FM The Wolf, had some highlights inside with hosts Brian Ellis and Taylor Renkema: