City Receives Application for New Bingo Hall; Local Bingo Company, Charities Object

ADMINISTRATOR'S NOTE:The Building and By-law Department has received new information on Feb. 28, 2022 that changes the parameters of this proposal for a new bingo hall in Burlington.The Licensing Section received a signed letter from the Burlington Charities Association (BCA) withdrawing their original support of the new bingo hall. The approval has been in place for weeks and formed part of the original application but as of today the approval changed and makes the proposal deficient from an AGCO perspective.The AGCO requires a new bingo hall to meet certain criteria for a new bingo proposal and the criteria is noted in Appendix 1 of “Criteria and Procedures for Establishing Bingo Halls” (see attached Appendix B of BB-01-22). The original proposal did have an approval letter from BCA and this morning we received a signed letter from BCA advising the City that the original approval has been withdrawn.With this new information the proposal for ‘Bingo Bingo’ does not meet the noted AGCO criteria in Appendix 1 and therefore the proposal for a new bingo hall as noted in report BB-01-22 needs to be withdrawn from the March 1 CPRM Committee meeting.

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Burlington has received an application from Bingo Bingo to open a new 20,000-sq.-ft. bingo hall at Brantview Plaza (1881 Fairview St.). It would operate seven days per week with a seating capacity of 400 bingo players.The bingo hall intends to support various non-profit and charitable organizations local to the community, as well as generate $150,000-200,000 in licensing fees for the city.The Burlington Charities Association (BCA) had written a letter of support for Bingo Bingo’s application, however recently withdrew that support. BCA’s members include 20 sports, educational and other charitable groups. The full list is available in the Bingo Bingo proposal, pg 4.When BCA wrote the initial support letter they were not aware that their long time Burlington operator, The Bingo Connection, was also arranging to make an application to relocate its existing business into the Polish Hall at 2316 Fairview Street. BCA supports that relocation application.“We do not believe that it is in the best interests of charities in Burlington to have two bingo halls in competition with each other within a few blocks of each other and this type of competition would be very destructive to the much needed charitable funds that could be raised,” states the letter to council from BCA President Mike Moir.The group is suggesting an independent market study be done to determine if the market in Burlington alone could sustain two operations.The Bingo Connection has also filed a letter of objection to Bingo Bingo’s application.“It would not seem likely that the City would be best served by two charitable bingo halls in competition with each other,” states president Leonard Parente. The group is asking the city to reject the application, or alternatively, require a market study to determine if another bingo hall can be sustained.Their letter also pointed out that the location Bingo Bingo is proposing to occupy had been the site The Bingo Connection was going to relocate to after their current location on Plains Road became a redevelopment site. The Bingo Connection had already spent over $12,000 in building permit fees, and $50,000 on architectural planning and consultant fees, just before Covid struck and closed everything, scuttling those plans.Bingo halls are regulated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) that sets out criteria for new, relocating, reopening or changing types of bingo halls. According to the AGCO, “the onus to demonstrate that a new bingo hall will be beneficial to the community (local and regional) rests with the applicant.”Per AGCO policies, City Council can require the applicant to undertake, at their cost, an independent market study to determine the impact of a new commercial bingo hall on existing bingo halls and charitable licenses.City Council will review the request at the Community Planning Regulation and Mobility Committee March 1, with a decision at the March 22 Council meeting.You can view the staff report and appendices here: CRPM March 1, Item 5.1Residents can register to speak at the committee or submit written feedback: Register as a Delegation.Don't have a computer, or need assistance with virtual meeting technology? Additional options to join the meeting are here: Participate in virtual meetings