Camrose Casino owner in receivership, but plan to relocate to Edmonton remains
CBC
The company that owns the Camrose Casino is in financial trouble, but the plan to move the casino to Edmonton is still in place.
Mayfield Investments Ltd., which runs the casino through its company Camrose Casino Corp., was put into receivership on Oct. 24 — two weeks after Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) approved the application to relocate the casino.
But an agreement exists to sell the casino's gambling license to the company proposing to build and operate the new location.
"That's going to happen," Mayfield Investments chairman Howard Pechet told CBC News on Nov. 1.
"They've already paid most of the money to Mayfield for the licence, and it's going to go ahead."
Mayfield Investments owes more than $38 million to ATB Financial, according to court documents. The bank pursued the receivership this year after initially demanding repayment in 2023.
Under a receivership, a third party is put in charge of a company and its assets in an effort to collect on unpaid debts from a secured loan. In this case, accounting firm Ernst & Young was appointed as Mayfield's receiver.
According to the receiver's first report on its activities, there is a plan in place to sell the Camrose Casino's gambling licence to Capital City Casinos Ltd. for $5.5 million.
That company — not Mayfield, or Camrose Casino Corp. — is proposing to develop and operate the new casino in southeast Edmonton.
Edmonton non-profits have criticized the prospect of a new casino because it's set to stay in the rural pool for charitable gaming events. That means Edmonton charities would be excluded from its revenues in the provincial charitable gaming system.
Beyond the licence changing hands, building a new casino in Edmonton still requires further municipal approvals.
The receiver's Oct. 28 report says the parties are still waiting on the AGLC to take the last step of cancelling the existing gambling licence and reissuing it to Capital City Casinos, before Mayfield gets the remainder of the money — unless they both agree to some other date.
In the meantime, the AGLC issued the receiver an interim licence to operate the Camrose Casino.
"As such, the casino will remain open and operations will continue, including any upcoming charity casino events," the AGLC said in a late October statement.
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