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One Vernon councillor is wondering if the city is getting short-changed by the local casino.

During Monday's regular council meeting, Bob Spiers suggested the city could get $1.5 million more than it currently does if it received 10 per cent of the gross, rather than the current 10 per cent of the net.

The city currently gets just under $2 million from the local Lake City Casino through the BC Lottery Corporation, and Spiers said he would like to renegotiate a better payout for the host government.

“It's probably never going to happen because this agreement has been in place almost 15 years,” said Spiers.

Spiers said casinos put their expenses in the gross total and that reduces the amount of money municipalities receive.

“It's kind of unfair in my mind,” he said. “There is $34 million that goes through that casino; $2 million remains within the city, the rest leaves the city.”

Spiers said there is no renewal period with BCLC.

“An extra million dollars could go toward affordable housing. It would lessen the tax burden for the rest of us,” he said.

Mayor Akbal Mund was somewhat cool to the idea of squeezing more money out of the casino.

“What you have to do is differentiate between what gross sales is and what net sales is,” said Mund, saying expenses and money given to various groups comes out of the gross sales.

“Do you penalize a business for helping out in the community by trying to take off of their gross sales rather than their net sales? That's how you have to look at it,” said Mund. “Gross sales is a lot different than net sales and a lot of your discounts and what not is buried in those gross sales.”

Mund said a portion of the gross sales are spent on helping out organizations and groups.

“Are we satisfied with getting $2 million from the casinos? Of course we are. We could be getting nothing like back in the 1990s. You have to be thankful there is a revenue source there for the city the taxpayers don't have to come up with,” said Mund.