Majority against downtown casino

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This article was published 21/01/2012 (5093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just over half of Brandon adults are not willing to take a gamble on a downtown casino, according to a Probe Research poll conducted exclusively for the Sun.

The City of Brandon recently released its Roadmap for Growth strategic plan, which includes the possibility of creating an “entertainment complex” on vacant land downtown.

Over the past year, there have been rumblings in the community to re-ignite the casino debate, and whether or not it would be an appropriate addition to a potential entertainment centre.

“When we asked people, slightly over half (53 per cent) said that they didn’t think a casino should go there,” said Curtis Brown, associate with Probe Research.

The Brandon-wide survey was conducted between Jan. 5 and Jan. 12 via telephone interviews among a random and representative sampling of 400 adults living in Brandon.

Forty-one per cent of respondents said downtown would be an appropriate site for a casino. Three per cent of those surveyed indicated their potential support would depend on other factors, while four per cent were undecided or refused to respond.

“Considering the history of public opinion in Brandon on a casino, it’s not surprising that it’s close,” Brown said.

“I think that tells you that this is something where people are fairly evenly split. Every time that city council has taken this question to voters in Brandon, that’s typically been the case.”

Voters rejected the idea of building a casino in Brandon during a 2002 plebiscite and again during another plebiscite in March 2008. Fifty-seven per cent of voters — more than 6,300 people — rejected the idea of establishing a casino in Brandon in the 2008 vote.

Brown said one interesting aspect of the survey is how only four per cent said they were unsure.

“Brandon has been debating this for more than 10 years,” Brown said. “It’s something that I think if you live there, you’re going to have strong opinions one way or the other. That’s just a given.”

The survey asked respondents to indicate if their views towards a casino have changed since 2008. Results show that one-third of Brandon residents (34 per cent) are now more inclined to support a casino, with 35 per cent indicating that their opinions have not changed one way or the other.

About one-quarter of those surveyed (24 per cent) are more likely to oppose a casino today.

“This shows that there’s a pretty even split. You have about a third saying their opinion basically hasn’t changed one way or the other, whether they were very much strong supporters of the casino or whether they were against it, that’s kind of where they still are,” Brown said.

According to the survey results, women were more likely to oppose establishing a casino in downtown Brandon (59 per cent) versus 45 per cent of men.

Those with lower household incomes were also more likely to oppose a casino — 65 per cent of those earning less than $30,000 per year and 64 per cent of those earning between $30,000 and $59,999, compared to 43 per cent among those earning more than $60,000 annually.

Those earning higher household incomes were more likely to support a casino — 53 per cent of those earning more than $60,000 annually, compared to 27 per cent among those earning less than $30,000 per year.

Older and middle-aged residents were less inclined to allow a casino in Brandon — 29 per cent of those aged 35 years and over, versus 15 per cent amount those aged 18-34 years.

People with a high school diploma or less education were also less inclined to a casino — 35 per cent versus 21 per cent of university and college graduates.

With a sample of 400, Probe Research states, there is 95 per cent certainty that the results are plus or minus 4.7 percentage points of what they would have been if the entire population of Brandon adults had been interviewed.

» jaustin@brandonsun.com