Slim April sales for some as Caesars strike continues

Downtown Windsor businesses and the City itself will feel the hit of the Caesars closure this month.

CaesarsWindsor management and the union representing 2,300 casino and hotel workers broke off their contract talks on Wednesday, as the strike continues.Wage increase and job security are two of the major issues between the union and management.

The casino has cancelled all events and hotel bookings for the month of April, leaving some downtown businesses in the lurch.

"In tourism, Caesars Windsor is our largest attraction, attracting 2.3 million visitors a year so it is a top driver for people to visit the city," saidLynnette Bain, vice president of tourism programs at Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island.

"So it's definitely going to [have an] impact."

City tax losses

A popular show at the casino could bring in some 5,000 people to the downtown core, said Bain, and many of those people will frequent downtown restaurants and businesses.

Bain said the losses for the city and thosebusinesses could be in the millions.

"Probably if you look at the multiplier effect we could be looking at multi-millions," she said. "When you look at the [tax] levies that the City receives you could be almost half a million at this point."

Downtown restaurants slow

It's been two weeks since workers walked off the job, and local restaurants are already noticing the difference.

Mark Boscariol ownsthree restaurants in Windsor SnackBar-B-Q andDowntown Pizza Company are near the casino, and Good Neighbour is in Walkerville.

He said twopart-time employees have already lost their shiftsand when it comes to hiring extra staff for the summer months, he's not sure he'll be able to.

"We are losing weekly sales, even fromcasinoemployees, our regulars," said Boscariol, adding that casino employees are probably not coming in because "they probably can't afford to."

Boscariol said he feels badly for the workers, and has heard what they've been going through when they visit his restaurants.

"For us, we really get impacted on show nights," he said.

"Those show nights are busy for not just our three restaurantsnearthe casino, but all the restaurants in the core," he said.

The loss of customers onbig show nights isalso being felt by the chef and owner of Bread Meats Bread, David Prantera.

"It's another demographic in our business and it doesn't help them being closed," said Prantera.

He said numbers at the end of the month will show just how much loss they've seen.

Detroit casino looks tocash in

Meanwhile, across the river, Greektown Casino is looking to cash in on the April closure of Caesars.

Greektown has been advertising that they are the closest casino to the borderandwill match Windsor "free pay offers" until the end of the month.

Bain said there's "healthy competition" between the casinos on both sides of the border, and she expects that Casesars will hold its clientele because of its brand.