St. Albert residents spoke highly this week of the man who is stepping down as the owner of the city's only casino after more than 30 years.
Century Casinos Inc. announced last week that it had applied to buy the Apex Casino for $27.9 million. The deal is subject to approval by the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.
Bruce McPherson, the current owner of Apex, said that he had been approached about the sale about 16 months ago, and decided it was time for him to move on.
"I'm 76, and it's time I started thinking about retiring."
David Reidie of the St. Albert Community Foundation was one of several city residents to praise McPherson's support of local charities. Reidie said that McPherson had likely contributed thousands to the foundation over the years, and never turned down a request for support.
"I have never, ever met a more generous person in my entire life," he said.
Gambling man
McPherson said he got his start in the gaming industry around 1971 as a dealer at Klondike Days. Back then, only agricultural societies were allowed to hold casinos, and he took up dealing cards as a part-time job to supplement his work in CN Rail's signals department.
McPherson said he became a full-time dealer in 1978 and ran temporary casinos at the St. Albert Inn, the Mayfair Hotel, the Capilano Motor Inn, and the Sandman Inn throughout the 1980s and 1990s through McPherson Casino and Equipment Management Ltd.
McPherson set up a permanent site in Campbell Park in 1994, which he dubbed the Gold Dust Casino. The place got renamed to Apex in 2010 at the staff's suggestion, McPherson – a decision he now says he regrets, as it implied that the place had been sold to someone else.
McPherson teamed up with local charities in the mid-1990s to lobby the province to let casinos operate on Sundays. Casinos were major fundraisers for charities, he explained, and back then you could only hold one in the community in which you lived. That meant many local charities were looking at four-year waits for a casino slot.
"You could go to the horse races on Sunday. You could go to bars and play VLTs on a Sunday. You could play bingo on Sunday. You could do all these forms of gambling on a Sunday, except (run) a casino."
The province agreed to a pilot project in 1996, and for a full year the Gold Dust was the only casino in Alberta allowed to operate on Sundays. The change let about 26 more charities a year hold casinos, McPherson said.
McPherson said he and the casino contribute to a wide array of St. Albert charities such as the SAIF Society and the St. Albert Food Bank. The casino has also provided about 200 turkeys a year for the St. Albert Kinette Christmas Hamper program for the last decade.
John Farlinger, the founder of Farlie Travel and long-time associate of McPherson, said McPherson was probably the most generous person he knew, "and I know a lot of people."
"Bruce doesn't say 'no' to anybody," he said, and buys a table at virtually every fundraiser in town.
McPherson is the perfect example of a successful businessperson who gives back to his community, said Lynda Moffat, president of the St. Albert & District Chamber of Commerce.
"Often the work he does for the community goes unnoticed, and I believe he likes it that way."
Any successful business should give back to the community, McPherson said.
"It makes me feel good that we can help out."
McPherson said he had no current plans for what he'd do next, but planned to stick around St. Albert.
"I'll just step back and take a deep breath."
