Gateway, a private casino that operates gaming facilities in Sarnia under Hiawatha Horse Park on London Line, is all set to relaunch its operations with 150 slot machines, thereby creating 60 new job opportunities. The plan to reopen the smaller slots facilities was not at all in the plan charted out by Gateway, but the Ontario government has ordered the casino to follow this footstep.
The former Hiawatha slots were abruptly shut down by the Liberal government back in 2012, which threw out more than 140 employees out of work. Since then, there was no plan to relaunch the slots in Hiawatha until the Ontario government gave them this opportunity. However, rebuilding the lost track took a considerable amount of time and hard work, but the hard work paid. To this, the owner of Hiawatha, Jim Henderson, remarked,
This is better for the community. I could have taken the cash but there’s so much happening in Sarnia right now, this was better for everyone.
Several upgradations have been made to relaunch Gateway, which will now have 150 machines in contrary to the previous 450 machines that Hiawatha had before shutting down. The work is almost complete, walls will be painted, and new machines will be installed to give the set a new look. The job vacancies have been posted for the posts of auditors, housekeeping staff, slots technicians, guest administrators, etc., on various websites, and job seekers are being interviewed to fill up the vacancies. The preparations have started in a full-fledged way as Gateway has set its launch sometimes in January.
Henderson is so much intrigued in the London line property that he is planning to build some restaurant chains on the property as well and has talked to several clients about the proposal.
