Tsleil-Waututh Nation Moves to Close Hastings Racecourse Casino Deal

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation is moving to close its purchase of the casino business at Vancouver's Hastings Racecourse & Casino, a transaction that would place one of the city's best-known gaming venues under First Nations ownership and mark another step in the Indigenous acquisition wave reshaping British Columbia's gambling market. The deal, struck with Great Canadian Entertainment, would give the North Shore nation control of the slot floor and related real-property interests at the century-old Hastings Park site.

The path to a Tsleil-Waututh Hastings Racecourse casino acquisition began in June 2025, when the nation signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Great Canadian for an agreement in principle. The parties converted that framework into a definitive purchase agreement on November 7, 2025. Closing remains subject to gaming regulatory approvals and, unusually for a casino transaction, the consent of the City of Vancouver, which owns the underlying land at Hastings Park and leases it for racing and gaming use.

A municipal landlord complicates the deal

Because the City of Vancouver holds title to the site, the sale is not a straightforward transfer of a private asset. Tsleil-Waututh must negotiate the future of the ground lease with the municipality, and city officials have their own long-range plans for the parkland. Those competing visions have introduced uncertainty about how long gaming will continue at its current scale, and on what terms. Tsleil-Waututh Chief Jen Thomas has said publicly that if the nation secures the lease it intends to continue operating the casino, signaling that the acquisition is meant as a durable economic asset rather than a short-term play.

The racing side of the operation adds another layer. Hastings has hosted thoroughbred racing for more than 130 years, but the sport has struggled financially, and dates for the 2026 season remained under discussion with the incoming owner. The casino, not the track, is the revenue engine, and it is the casino business that anchors the Tsleil-Waututh agreement.

Part of a broader ownership shift

The Hastings deal does not stand alone. Over the past two years, Great Canadian Entertainment has steadily sold British Columbia properties to Indigenous buyers, and several nations have stepped forward as operators rather than passive landlords. The Snuneymuxw First Nation has been the most active, assembling a portfolio that includes River Rock Casino Resort and other Lower Mainland venues, a run detailed in our coverage of Snuneymuxw's rise to the largest Indigenous casino operator in the province. The Semiahmoo, Tsleil-Waututh and the Ts'elxwéyeqw Tribe communities have joined the same movement, a pattern we tracked in our review of the B.C. First Nations casino acquisitions.

For nations acquiring these properties, the appeal is control: casino ownership converts a share of provincial gaming revenue into a self-directed source of income that funds housing, services and reinvestment on the nation's own terms.

The timing coincides with the July 2026 launch of British Columbia's regulated online market, which opened a channel for Indigenous operators to extend beyond in-person floors into digital wagering. That combination — land-based ownership plus a new iGaming lane — has made 2026 a pivotal year for First Nations participation in the provincial industry.

What distinguishes the current wave from earlier arrangements is the shift from revenue-sharing to outright ownership. For decades, First Nations in British Columbia participated in gaming largely through a provincial revenue-sharing framework administered by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, receiving a negotiated slice of proceeds without controlling the businesses themselves. Acquiring a property like Hastings inverts that relationship: instead of receiving a distribution set by others, the nation captures the full operating margin, sets its own reinvestment priorities, and gains a seat at the table on questions of employment, procurement and community benefit. That is the substance behind the phrase economic self-determination that recurs whenever these deals are announced.

The regulatory process itself is methodical. Casino ownership changes in British Columbia require review by the province's gaming regulator, which vets the suitability of new operators, their financing and their governance. For a First Nation, that review runs alongside the internal governance steps a nation takes to stand up a business arm capable of running a commercial gaming floor. None of this is fast, and the Hastings timeline reflects it — more than a year has elapsed between the initial memorandum and a still-pending close.

What closing would mean

If regulatory sign-off and the municipal lease negotiations fall into place, Tsleil-Waututh would take over a venue with an established customer base in a dense urban market, an advantage few new tribal casinos enjoy. The nation's stated intention to keep gaming running would preserve jobs and continuity for existing patrons while redirecting ownership benefits to the community. The remaining variables are procedural rather than commercial: the shape of the lease, the fate of the racing calendar, and the pace of regulatory review. Readers tracking the wider Canadian picture can follow related developments through our tribal and First Nations gaming directory, which maps operators across the United States and Canada. For now, the Hastings agreement stands as one of the clearest signals yet that First Nations ownership is becoming a structural feature of British Columbia gaming rather than a series of one-off transactions.