The Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association (OHRIA) is concerned that the integration of horse racing into the OLG’s Gaming Strategy will be impossible if the existing OLG Modernization Plan continues to go forward.

The OLG’s announcement of the RFPQs (Request for Pre-Qualification) for their Southwest Gaming Bundle puts Ontario’s horse racing industry at further risk of collapse because the existing Modernization Plan does not allow for racetrack operators to submit a proposal to operate the slots that already exist in their racetracks. The current “bundle” proposal that requires a single operator for all six gaming zones in the Southwest would further eliminate individual racetracks from consideration as hosts.

The Government won’t know the final strategy on how horse racing will be integrated into the Modernization Plan until October 2013, a full two months after the latest RFPQ deadline for the Southwest Bundle, which contains five OLG Slots at racetracks.

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