South Beach Casino
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South Beach Casino is located just south of Grand Beach on Hwy 59 about 30 minutes north of Winnipeg. Situated within the Brokenhead Ojibway First Nations town of Scanterbury, it is one of two native owned casinos in Manitoba. It was funded and is currently managed by a U.S. based leisure management company called Hemisphere Gaming.
It was open for business in 2005 and it currently employs 170 people, 60% of whom are aboriginal. While First Nations people are finding employment at the casino, the positions filled are typically minimum wage, low skill jobs.
It recently celebrated it's one millionth customer during the 3rd week of Aug, 2007 having earned $7,000,000 in profits from $30,000,000 in total revenue for the fiscal year ending in March 2007.
Patronized mainly from the cottage communities in and around the south basin of Lake Winnipeg, it receives regular pilgrimages from smoking gamblers that have been shut-out of other non-smoking facilities in the city. However, this is due to change now that the casino and the provincial government have agreed to increase the number of slot machines in exchange for becoming a non-smoking venue.
While it has become a profitable enterprise for the majority shareholders, there are concerns about it's much-publicized economic benefits that are turning into nothing more than another avenue for victimization. [1]
