To whom it may concern, We are all local musicians, promoters, venue owners or work for a local music business. We are concerned about the impact of a downtown casino on our local music scene. At a recent public information session concerning the effect of a possible casino expansion into downtown Hamilton, city council was advised by Dr. Hannah Holmes, a professor of Economics at McMaster University that a casino would very likely hurt local, independent businesses. The current revival of our wonderful downtown is due in part to a growing number of small local businesses and a strong and vibrant arts community. The recent proposal by the Hard Rock Group and Carmens Group Inc. for a downtown casino suggests that a live music venue will be a large component of their facility. As musicians, promoters and music venue owners we have a very real concern that a large entertainment complex, run, in part, by a large American--- owned corporation, could potentially harm local, independent music venues and promoters. As local independent businesses who do not have the advantage of an exclusive partnership with a gambling monopoly, we are concerned that this development will not compete on a level playing field and harm some of the many businesses who have already invested in the downtown core. Casinos in cities across North America have been built as self---sustaining developments that use music and other forms of entertainment to prevent people from leaving or utilizing other amenities within the surrounding area. To be clear, we do not take issue with anyone wanting to build more and larger music venues in Hamilton, however we believe that a large corporation may not be sensitive to our city's musical history, nor care about its impacts on local arts in general. As such, we are stating that should a downtown casino be pushed through at Council without a proper city---wide referendum we would choose to neither play at it nor promote for it. Collectively, Michael Keire/ Threshold Recording Studio Lee Reed Adam Bentley/ The Rest Terra Lightfoot Doobie Freaks Young Rival Junior Boys Sonic Unyon Lou Molinaro/This Ain't Hollywood Jessy Lanza Mike Renaud Homegrown Hamilton Ollie/ Beautry Industries Aaron Sakala/ Lee Reed Cowlick Casbah Ace Piva Mike Trebilcock Drew Smith Caribou Pick a Piper George Pettit/ Alexisonfire Orphx Max Kerman/ Arkells John Caffery/ Kids on TV Young Empires Wax Mannequin Canadian Winter Bill Majoros/ The Foreign Films Steven McKay/ Bruce Peninsula Tor Lukasik---Foss Sandeep Bhandari James Tennant Ken Inouye New Hands Catherine North Studios Mike Simon Haolin Munk Illitry Jeremy Fisher Aaron Goldstein Dark Mean Kojo easy Damptey Chore David Dunham/DAVIDS/DivorceVideo/Don Vail Cam Malcolm Toledo Secret Heights The Kettle Black Matt Jelly Monster Truck Juke Wilson Sarah Good Brad Germain Sianspheric The Caretakers Thom Gill Greg Santilly San Sebastian Jamie Smith The Dirty Nil Earth Wind and Choir Magic Shadows Annie Shaw Social Divorce Electroluminescent Piranha Entertainment Monster Fever You, Me and the Machine Tom Shea Trio Arjento Slender Loris Crop Failure glassEYElashes Pucumber Sasssquash Family Band Steve Hanson In Transit The Safety Collective TV Freaks Paul Hogeterp The Baltimore House ADDED AS OF 8 February 2013 Darcy Hepner Astrid Hepner Tom Wilson Harlan Pepper Turkey Rhubarb BEARD Chris Logan / Anxiety / Goodfellow Records Dan Rivero - promoter The Plain Steel Jamie Shea OurSis Sam Steel Gold Roots 2Leaf Project Dave Reed Paul Penney Patricia Speakman Mike Hannay / Anciients The Steeltown Spoilers Herd Of Elk Other Songs Music Co. Matt Paxton Scott Orr Timid The Brave The Pre---Nods FRANKIE & JIMMY Spooky Astronauts Drawing Club Shelley Woods Sam Klass DJ KIKIDY Caleb Collins / Circle Takes The Square Northern Metal Management Joe Rico / Sacrifice Dave Marini Cessna Crop Failure Fire End Water Horse Glue CA Smith Craig Argyle / The Saints are Coming Hammer City Records Schizophrenic Records Greg Brisco Kevin Bell/ Black Mountain Music Donna Lovejoy Kyle Bishop / Grade Jamie Ryan Downey/ No Shoes & One Sock Alex Zafer---Photog Mitch Fillion / southernsouls.ca Jason Van Gronignen Matt Fleming David Montour Mitch Bowden Weekend Riot Club Sexbeast The Monarch Project (Jo Boudreau) Mot?m Stephen Foster/ The Crawlin' Kingsnakes, Simply Saucer Homegrown Hamilton Spherical Productions Blind Mule