Canadian seniors getting rides to local casinos
Since a while, many operators have been targeting specific people and offering them rides (bus tours) to some local casino.
The concept is not new of course. Be it for gambling or simply going to some local attraction, lots of bus operators are being hired to promote such tours.
For senior people, finding a ride to play to some casino is not always easy. So the idea kicked in to offer them discounted tour.
Example: some tours are offered going from Ontario to the Casino du Lac-Rhemy.
This casino is located near Ottawa but on the Quebec side. It includes poker, keno, slot machines, game tables, It is deserved by at least five restaurants and three bars.
Daily and entertaining shows and events are part of the complex. There is a Hilton hotel for nearby accomodation.
So seniors people can get a round-trip with up to 5 hours of gambling for only 15 Canadian dollars.
Once at the casino, the usual steps are taken: people are greeted by Casino staff and theirs player’s cards are swipped. Such cards are tracking the spending of players.
Such trips are very common throughout all Canada and one can count 100 of them daily. They are on their peak when casinos are going slower.
The Quebec government pays some of the highest bus subsidies of any province : more than $3.2-million over the past two fiscal years to transport patrons to its casinos.
Although such bus tours were long thought to be benign ( retirement homes routinely shuttle residents to casinos or others attractions as part of their entertainment ) researchers now question whether these trips potentially set seniors up for future gambling problems.
Another example is the one for the Casino of Charlevoix (very nice casino located remotely from the city). At first, tours were at 200 trips a year and now one can count over 3400 trips a year.
Casinos are using player’s card to offer better tours, accomodations and similar stuffs to some groups. A group spending more money than another will be offered more consideration in order for that group to come back.
Others trips, from Ontario, are going to the Montreal casino. The trip costs only 40 Canadian dollars (round-trip) including a 10 dollars meal voucher and a 10 dollars coupon for the slots.
Most people agree that seniors going to Casinos are doing it out of boredom. People at the casinos are kind, greeting the seniors and taking care of them…. the whole time they are playing at the resort.
At the end of the day, few will come back with some earnings though some will board another ride some days later. Those buses being usually full at the end of the month when the social security cheque arrives.
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