If We Can Make It There...

...Then we better make it everywhere, and quickly!

Two interesting media stories below, one from New York and the other out of Toronto from Bloomberg. To be blunt, we need all of the Sin City reports we can get if you read the Bloomberg story.

First, the New York Post ran a story on Windsor and the Super Bowl the other day. How many tourists will the good part attract:

• "WOE, CANADA! WINDSOR IS SIN CITY
  
  By PAUL SCHWARTZ and MARK CANNIZZARO
  
  January 31, 2006 -- DETROIT — The city is expecting a financial windfall as hundreds of thousands of tourists with money to burn pour into town for Super Bowl XL. Not Detroit, silly. Windsor. As in Canada.
  
  Alluringly situated just across the Detroit River, Windsor is so close yet so different. From the massive Renaissance Center complex that serves as the Super Bowl hub, the beckoning lights from the Windsor Casino illuminate the night sky.
  
  Riverboats are waiting on the American side to speed customers across the river. [Hmm I wonder where they are] The Ambassador Bridge or Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is nearby to get to a Canadian city which is actually south of the Motor City. [Watch for this to be a question in the next Trivial Pursuit]
  
  So what's in Windsor? Restaurants, a Little Italy section, the Art Gallery Museum, the NFL Fan Zone.
  
  OK, what's really in Windsor?"

How many tourists will the better part attract....I am sure you can guess what our attractions were that the Post described by now!

These stories about Windsor may have come at just the right time however. Perhaps we better thank that Detroit reporter who did the Sin City story in the first place. As far as the Bloomberg story went, read this and be concerned:

• Ontario May Lose C$500 Mln From Casino Smoking Ban, Study Says
  Jan. 31 (Bloomberg)
  
  Ontario may lose as much as C$500 million ($438 million) a year by implementing a smoking ban in casinos because it will drive some smokers to U.S. gambling halls, an Ontario government study said.
  
  The results of the study, commissioned by the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development in 2004, were obtained under a Freedom of Information request by mychoice.ca, a lobby group for Canada's smokers.
  
  Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan had estimated in November that the provincial deficit for the fiscal year ending March 31 would be C$2.4 billion. Adding C$500 million next year would boost the deficit by 21 percent.
  
  ``There is an understanding the smoking ban will have an impact on the gaming industry,'' said Wilson Lee, spokesman at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal, which is responsible for the provincial casinos. ``The smoking ban needs to be weighed not just in terms of the health impacts but the fiscal impacts on the health system.''
  
  The government study said a ban on smoking at a charity casino in Brantford, Ontario resulted in a 20 percent decline in revenue as people spent less time gambling and more time away from the tables. The decline in attendance was only 2 percent.
  
  ``It is clear that casino patrons have decreased their playing time and/or spending while at the casino,'' the study said...
  
  Ontario plans to ban smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces on May 31. That will include the elimination of designated smoking rooms in bars and restaurants as well as the ban on smoking in casinos, bingo halls and private clubs...
  
  The government has promised to spend more on casino facilities to keep gamblers in the province, including a C$400 million renovation of the Windsor Casino which has already been losing business to casinos in Detroit, across the river.
  
  People in Detroit are ``ecstatic'' because ``it's good for their casinos...''