Saskatoon bingo hall left confused by restrictions

A Saskatoon bingo hall says the measures ordering bingo halls in Saskatchewan to close on Saturday doesn’t change much and is left confused by the way the province is restricting the industry.

Like most bingo halls in the province, City Centre Bingo decided to close in late November after restrictions limited capacity to a maximum of 30 people. For the hall, which has a capacity of 710 people, limiting it to 30 was not feasible.

Gaming operations manager Gordy Ouellette said operationally, the new restriction ordering halls to close doesn’t affect City Centre Bingo because it was already closed.

“The government can say, ‘Well, we never closed you down,’ ” said Ouellette. “We have a mortgage (and) we have some hard costs we have to pay every month. Thirty people in our bingo hall does not cut the mustard. Can we survive? We sure hope so.”

City Centre Bingo raises money for 55 charities. Ouellette estimates those charities will lose a total of $200,000 to $300,000 per month due to the closure.

Now that the hall must remain closed until at least Jan. 15, Ouellette is looking at the long-term effects. He said his organization is very stable, but it’s reviewing its options.

“We’re going to be looking for some relief, probably from the federal and provincial government to have a bingo hall open when they do finally open up the economy again,” he said.

City Centre Bingo has reserves set aside, but Ouellette said the hall’s operators ate into that quite a bit during the first lockdown in the spring and when they decided to close for two weeks in early November after an outbreak was declared at the hall.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority issued a warning about a potential “super-spreader” event, something Ouellette still takes issue with.

Now that casinos and bingo halls are ordered to close for about a month, Ouellette questions why VLTs aren’t also being closed down.

“Who owns the VLTs? Sask. Gaming Corporation. Who owns Sask. Gaming Corporation? The provincial government. They’re the only game in town now,” said Ouellette.

He said City Centre Bingo has been proactive in trying to limit the spread of the virus, while doing everything it’s supposed to do to keep the hall clean. Anecdotally, he’s not impressed with VLTs after visiting several businesses that have them, claiming they weren’t wiped down between users.

“We police ourselves,” Ouellette said. “Who polices the VLTs? Nobody.”

Overall, Ouellette doesn’t agree with the government’s method of restricting his industry.

“We understand the reason and we’re not fighting that we’re closed. If this is what’s going to help stop the spread of this disease or this virus, then absolutely we’re all in. But how they’re rolling it out and how they’re doing it doesn’t make sense to us. We’re confused,” said Ouellette.

If City Centre Bingo could open to a fraction of its capacity with 120 to 140 people, Ouellette said the hall’s operators could make it work. He said that would allow a decent payout to charities while allowing the hall to pay its expenses.

But up until now, he hasn’t been contacted by the government and asked for his input.

“Please, please listen to us on our concerns. We’ve had zero of that. Zero. Absolutely zero,” said Ouellette.