By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · July 31, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen
About 900 members of Unifor Local 1090 walked off the job on Friday, July 31, 2026, at Casino Ajax and Pickering Casino Resort, ending negotiations with Great Canadian Entertainment and beginning what union president Greg Weaver described as a labour action that will run "24/7 until the company gets back to the table" with an offer that reaches wage parity across the operator's Greater Toronto Area properties. Approximately two-thirds of Unifor Local 1090 members had rejected a tentative agreement in the days prior. Both casinos remain open to the public, per Great Canadian executive vice president Chuck Keeling's statement, though he acknowledged that "some amenities may be impacted."
For Ontario poker, this is not a peripheral labour story. Casino Ajax and Pickering Casino Resort each operate one of Durham Region's two dedicated live poker rooms, and Great Canadian Entertainment, the operator, is the single largest live-poker landlord in Ontario when counted alongside its Toronto-flagship Great Canadian Casino Resort (formerly Woodbine Casino). Between the three properties, Great Canadian runs on the order of 30 to 40 live tables at any given weekend evening and a rolling tournament calendar that has, over 2026, delivered the province's largest series prize pools outside Playground Poker at Kahnawake. Table-games dealers, floor supervisors, cage staff, food and beverage and janitorial staff are all within Local 1090's bargaining unit. Poker dealers are within the same table-games classification and are on the picket line alongside their blackjack, baccarat and craps counterparts.
The Numbers
Per CBC Toronto's Olivia Piercey, who broke the story on Friday afternoon, the tentative agreement rejected by roughly two-thirds of members had offered a 14 per cent wage increase spread over four years. Local 1090's stated demand is parity with Great Canadian's Toronto property. Union representatives told the CBC that workers at the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto (the former Woodbine Casino) earn between US$2.00 and US$4.00 more per hour for the same jobs than staff at Casino Ajax and Pickering Casino Resort. On a full-time-equivalent basis over a year, that gap ranges from roughly $4,000 to $8,000 in gross wages per employee.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Casinos affected | Casino Ajax; Pickering Casino Resort |
| Operator | Great Canadian Entertainment |
| Union | Unifor Local 1090 |
| Members on strike | Approximately 900 |
| Strike start | Friday, July 31, 2026 |
| Tentative agreement rejected | 14% wage increase over four years |
| Rejection margin | ~66% of union members |
| Wage gap vs Toronto flagship | US$2.00-$4.00 per hour, same jobs |
| Employer position | Casinos remain open; some amenities impacted |
| Union position | "24/7 until the company gets back to the table" |
Compiled from CBC News (Olivia Piercey, July 31, 2026), Unifor Local 1090 statement and Great Canadian Entertainment corporate statement.
Union and Employer, in Their Own Words
Greg Weaver, president of Unifor Local 1090, told the CBC on Friday afternoon that "we're going to [strike] 24/7 until the company gets back to the table with us and brings the fair wages that we need." He added that the tentative agreement's 14 per cent over four years was "not going to be accepted" by rank-and-file members: "That tells me that these members are not going to accept anything that low." Mr. Weaver said the strike will continue for "as long as it takes" to reach an agreement with wage parity. "We need parity and we need it now," he said. "They want to be paid."
Samuel Ho, a table-games dealer at Pickering Casino Resort and chairperson for the local, put the point personally. "At the end of day, none of us want to strike," he told the CBC. "We want a fair deal. We want to be able to be equal to our counterparts." Mr. Ho's role in the union is particularly relevant to poker readers: as a table-games dealer, he is one of the workers who deals poker tournaments and cash games in the Pickering room during regular operations.
Chuck Keeling, executive vice president at Great Canadian Entertainment, said the company had "been in negotiations for months" and that "regrettably, despite our best efforts, we have not been successful in reaching an agreement." The Ajax and Pickering casinos will remain open, he said, but "some amenities may be impacted." The company has not, as of Friday evening, specified which amenities are affected.
The Poker-Room Impact
Neither Casino Ajax nor Pickering Casino Resort had issued a specific statement on poker-room operations as of press time. Historically, when major casino operators face table-games labour actions, the poker room is one of the first amenities to close because dealer, floor and chip-runner roles are all within the union bargaining unit and cannot be readily backfilled with non-union management staff. Blackjack, baccarat, roulette and craps tables can, in short-term contingencies, be run with limited-scope supervisor coverage on a reduced-hours basis. Poker tables typically require a full crew per table plus tournament directors and floor supervisors, and are less amenable to skeleton-crew operations. Historical precedent from labour actions at Great Canadian's British Columbia properties in 2019 and at Casino Rama in 2013 saw the poker room in each case close within 24 to 48 hours of the strike beginning while other table games ran on reduced hours.
Practical implications for Ontario live-poker players over the next several days:
- Casino Ajax poker room: expected closure or heavily reduced hours. The room typically runs mid-stakes cash games from Thursday through Sunday and monthly Deepstack tournaments. Any scheduled August 2026 tournaments should be considered under review until the operator posts an updated schedule.
- Pickering Casino Resort poker room: expected closure or heavily reduced hours. The room typically runs no-limit cash games seven nights per week and hosts the ongoing Ontario Deepstack Poker Series schedule. Scheduled events on the OPS calendar for August 2026 will need operator confirmation.
- Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto (Woodbine): not affected by the strike (Toronto property is a different bargaining unit). The Toronto poker room continues normal operations, potentially with elevated demand from displaced Durham-Region players.
- Casino Niagara and Fallsview: not affected. Both are operated by Falls Management Group and are not part of Unifor Local 1090's bargaining unit.
- Playground Poker (Kahnawake): not affected. Quebec property.
Players holding Ontario Deepstack series buy-ins or Casino Ajax monthly-tournament tickets should monitor the property websites and the Ontario Poker Tournament Schedule page on this site for confirmed updates. This site will publish a daily strike-status update through the duration of the labour action.
The Regulatory Framework
Ontario's regulated iGaming market operates under iGaming Ontario, the province's stand-alone Crown agency, and the AGCO for licensing and enforcement. Land-based casinos are regulated separately under the AGCO's Registrar's Standards for Gaming, and their commercial operations are administered by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) through a service-provider contract framework. Great Canadian Entertainment operates Casino Ajax and Pickering Casino Resort under this OLG service-provider contract regime.
OLG's role in labour negotiations is indirect. The Crown corporation does not sit at the bargaining table but does set commercial performance standards that the service provider must meet. A prolonged strike that materially affects revenue could trigger contractual performance-review clauses, though those clauses have historically been enforced with restraint. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is not a labour-relations regulator and will not be involved in the negotiations directly.
The province's political sponsor of gaming, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, is currently interim Attorney General Doug Downey following Stan Cho's resignation on July 17. Interim ministers typically do not intervene in provincial labour disputes involving Crown-contract-operator relationships.
Wider Context
Labour actions in the Ontario casino sector are relatively uncommon but not unprecedented. Casino Rama's dealers voted to strike in 2013 and reached settlement within four weeks. Great Canadian's British Columbia dealers took similar action in 2019 with settlement in three weeks. The current Ajax and Pickering situation is materially different in two ways. First, the parity claim is legally straightforward. The comparison group (workers at the Toronto flagship performing the same job description) is well defined and the wage differential is quantifiable in the collective agreement. Second, the negotiations follow a lengthy pre-strike period of "months" per Mr. Keeling's own statement, meaning both sides have had time to solidify positions.
For live-poker specifically, the strike underscores a broader labour-market fact: skilled poker dealers are hard to find and expensive to train. A dealer capable of running a tournament final table with correct chip management, seat-open protocols and clock-management is a specialised worker, not an interchangeable line-level employee. When such workers strike, the room cannot be run at capacity with substitutes.
Ontario Player Angle
Ontario's regulated online poker market operates independently of the land-based sector. The six regulated online rooms (GGPoker Ontario, PokerStars Ontario, 888poker Ontario, BetMGM Poker Ontario, PartyPoker Ontario and Bwin Ontario) are unaffected by the strike and continue standard Sunday-major schedules. Players must be 19 and physically located in Ontario to register.
For displaced live-poker players over the coming days and weeks, options include the Toronto Great Canadian Casino Resort (formerly Woodbine, not affected), Casino Niagara and Fallsview (Falls Management, not affected), Playground Poker in Kahnawake (Quebec, drives 5.5 hours from Toronto and offers the ongoing summer stack schedule alongside the WSOP Super Circuit Canada 2026 starting August 26), and Ontario's regulated online rooms as an at-home substitute.
This site will track resolution talks, poker-room-specific operational statements and any impact on the August 2026 tournament calendar. Follow-up coverage arrives at the 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern slots for the duration of the strike.