The casino in the Ontario city of Sault Ste. Marie celebrated its 25th birthday late last week and announced it has contributed approximately $25.8 million to the local community since opening in May of 1999.

Owned and operated by Gateway Casinos and Entertainment Limited, the Sault Ste Marie venue features a 35,000 sq ft casino hosting a selection of over 450 slots as well as six gaming tables offering blackjack, roulette and novelty poker entertainment. 

The Gateway Casinos Sault Ste. Marie enterprise also hosts a 100-seat restaurant and is especially popular with American gamblers as it is situated only a six-minute drive from Canada’s southern border with the United States.

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Industry Innovator

The Chair for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation regulator, Jim Warren, told CTV that the Gateway Casinos Sault Ste Marie concern has led the gambling scene in Ontario for many years as it was only the province’s third casino and the first to be housed in a purpose-built facility.

“For the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, this was an anchor property,” Warren said. “It was one of the first casinos in Ontario so we learned an awful lot of great lessons on how we would expand across the rest of the province.”

Warren went on to detail the Gateway Casinos Sault Ste. Marie enterprise was Ontario’s earliest casino to premiere outside of the tourist hotspot of Niagara Falls and was the first to open for those in the north of the giant province of some 16 million people.

Property Progression 

Vince Vommaro serves as the General Manager for the Gateway Casinos Sault Ste Marie facility and he declared his venue has witnessed a lot of change over the last 25 years, including the growing popularity of video-based slots.

“We went from a coin-in type of business where you're putting tokens into a machine to a ticket-in ticket-out,” Vommaro said. 

“We call it TITO and that kind of opened the door for, you know, the business to kind of develop and progress.”

Abundant Assistance

The mayor of Sault Ste Marie, Matthew Shoemaker, was presented with a ceremonial check during a special Thursday ceremony to mark the 25th birthday of the Gateway Casinos Sault Ste Marie enterprise. 

The first-term leader asserted the gambling-friendly facility gives his city of about 72,000 inhabitants $878,700 to $951,900 to every year, which ‘went to the hospital until the hospital was built and outfitted with new equipment’.

“Then it's gone to physician recruitment and it's gone to asset management—things like upgrades to the GFL Memorial Gardens, the John Rhodes Community Centre, the museum and the libraries,” Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker declared the Gateway Casinos Sault Ste. Marie venue employs 140 people and has additionally contributed more than $366,000 to 50 local charities since 1999. 

He finished by describing the success of the facility as ‘critical’ to the growth of his community.