Casino Rama reopens its doors
By Colin Graf
CHIPPEWAS OF RAMA FIRST NATION — In spite of an early rush of returning gamblers, the July 29 reopening of Casino Rama has gone smoothly, with no serious health and safety concerns for this host community, says Chief Ted Williams.
Earlier this year, Chief Williams said the casino would only reopen under conditions Chief and Council could agree with, and now he says those have been met. The facility has been closed since the beginning of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Mar. 2020. While some Ontario casinos reopened for a while last fall, Casino Rama did not.
“We’re feeling pretty good about it,” Chief Williams says. “We’re confident. Our team asked [the casino operators] for their protocols and went through them.”
Community officials toured the casino before it opened to see how the building will operate with new health and safety modifications, and held indoor and outdoor smudging ceremonies.
There were people waiting in their cars for as long as two days before the reopening, but there have not been noticeable lineups since.
“It’s been steady,” adds Chief Williams, but with capacity restrictions in place, only about 400 out of 1,000 employees are back at work.
With the Casino hotel scheduled to open later in Aug., more employees will be called back, he says, noting that concerts may resume at Casino Rama in the fall.
“I’ve stopped getting so many calls,” Chief Williams says, explaining that he used to get frequent phone calls asking about the casino’s reopening from community members.
His callers are mostly frustrated with the COVID-19 pandemic and want to “return to the life they enjoyed before the pandemic arrived,” he explains.
The extended closure has hurt the community with the loss of employment and patronage for local businesses, Chief Williams said earlier this summer. However, the First Nation has continued to receive lease payments during that time under the terms of the funding agreement between the community, province, and casino operator.
“We are very fortunate we had some good negotiators at that time,” he states.
While the decrease in visitors was difficult, “we kept the community safe” from COVID-19, with only five cases reported last fall and none since, the Chief said. Chippewas of Rama employs around 350 people and many of those positions are related to the casino, including 70 in the police and fire departments, along with a Tim Horton’s outlet.
Casino occupancy is 50 per cent of the regular capacity, and masking and distancing requirements remain in place, according to information on the website of the operator, Gateway Casinos & Entertainment. Entry is first-come, first-served.
The company has added plexiglass barriers, queuing indicators, added sanitizing of surfaces, and other health measures, the website says.
Casino Rama just passed its 25th anniversary in July, Chief Williams recalls, and “it’s been a good ride” for his community, pulling in around $600 million in revenue per year in its heyday.
“We had 3,400 employees too,” remembers Chief Williams, who was involved in the development of the casino and served as a vice-president from the opening in 1996 – 2001.
Employment before COVID-19 was around 1,700 full-time and 400 part-time employees, he says.