Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs Slots

What the Floor Actually Looks Like

Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs operates roughly 150 slot machines inside the Kawartha Downs racetrack complex in Fraserville, Ontario. You will find it at 1382 County Rd 28, about 17 kilometres south of Peterborough if you are driving down from the city. This is a dedicated slots venue, not a full casino floor. There are no card tables, no roulette wheels, no dice games - just electronic slot machines, which is exactly what this location is set up for.

The doors currently open at 10:00 a.m. and close at midnight, every day of the week. From time to time you may see older online listings showing 24/7 access; that schedule is a generic template copied from other venues and does not apply here. The operating hours that matter are the ones confirmed on the official Kawartha Downs site, and those are the 10:00 a.m. to midnight hours.

Play, payments and payouts all run in Canadian dollars. Cash is what most guests use at the machines and at the cage. If you forget to bring enough, there are ATMs on the property. Minimum cage transactions are usually around CAD 20. Regular wins pay out directly at the machine or over the counter at the cage, depending on size and how you prefer to settle. Once a payout hits a certain threshold, staff will step in, verify your identity, and complete a short form before handing over the money. That process can be quite fast - sometimes 5 minutes - but for higher amounts it may stretch closer to half an hour.

Getting There and Getting Started

Parking is located right on the racetrack grounds, so arrival is straightforward. You drive in, follow the on-site signs, and walk into the shared complex. At the entrance to the gaming area, our team checks valid government-issued photo identification. Ontario law sets the gambling age at 19, and we enforce that at the door, not once you are already on the floor.

After you get past the entrance check, the actual play routine is simple. The property uses a ticket-in, ticket-out system, which lines up with how other Ontario gaming venues operate. You load cash or a voucher into the machine, play as long as you like, and then hit the collect button when you are done. The device prints a ticket, and with that ticket you can either switch to another slot or go straight to the cage to redeem.

A basic visit for a new guest tends to unfold like this:

1. Drive to 1382 County Rd 28 in Fraserville and park on the Kawartha Downs property.
2. Head to the entrance and show a valid piece of photo ID - a passport, a driver’s licence, or a permanent resident card all meet the requirement.
3. If you need funds, stop by the cage or use one of the ATMs before picking a machine.
4. Walk the floor and choose a slot. The approximately 150 machines carry different themes and denominations.
5. Insert cash or a TITO voucher, then start spinning.
6. When you want to finish, press collect and the machine will print your voucher.
7. Take your voucher to the cage for payment, and for large wins make sure you also bring the same ID you used at the door.
8. If you feel like a break, the Player’s Lounge and Bar is on-site for a drink or something to eat during your visit.

One small but helpful detail: it is easier to keep your ID in your pocket or bag on the floor, not leave it in the car or coat. If you hit a bigger payout, you will need that ID again at the cage, and carrying it saves you an extra walk back and forth.

The Racetrack Side of Things

Shorelines Slots shares its building with the Kawartha Downs harness racing track. These are separate operations from a regulatory and business angle, but physically they sit under the same roof. Live harness racing typically runs from May into October, mostly on Saturday evenings, with post time commonly around 7:00 p.m. During the same period, Kawartha Downs also offers simulcast betting on races from other tracks, handled through its own facilities.

When live racing is active, guests can move between the slots floor and the grandstand seating areas. The result is a different kind of night out compared to a standalone slots-only trip: there is wagering on the races, people watching from the stands, and the buzz of the track along with the machines. Outside that May to October window, the racetrack quiets down, but the slots area maintains its normal daily schedule and keeps operating on its own.

Food and drinks are available through the shared complex, with the Player’s Lounge and Bar as the most visible space from the slots side. Washrooms and ATMs are easy to find once you are inside. Parking stays on the racetrack property for both slots and racing visitors.

Entry Rules and Responsible Gaming

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario regulates Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs along with every other Shorelines-branded location. That means our floor follows AGCO rules on access, payouts, and conduct. The legal minimum age is 19, and we do not make exceptions to that rule. Guests who are registered in a self-exclusion program through either OLG or AGCO are not allowed to enter the gaming area, and our team is trained to support and enforce those restrictions.

For any single transaction or win that reaches CAD 10,000 or more, staff apply anti-money laundering procedures and Know Your Customer checks. This is standard across Ontario-regulated casino and slots venues, not something unique to this property. Because of those requirements, carrying your identification card or passport throughout your visit is important. It is checked at the entrance and then again for higher-value payouts or documentation, not just once on arrival.

Great Canadian Entertainment manages the day-to-day operation of the facility and does so under AGCO’s responsible gambling framework. Information about problem gambling support sits on-site at designated touchpoints, and staff can point it out if you ask. The Ontario gambling help line, which operates province-wide, can be reached at 1-888-230-3505 for anyone who wants to speak with a trained counsellor.

How the Property Got Here

The slots operation at Kawartha Downs has carried several names and management structures over the years. It started as OLG Slots at Kawartha Downs, directly under the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. That was the original identity of the gaming floor inside the racetrack complex. In December 2015, Great Canadian Gaming Corporation issued a statement confirming that the property would be rebranded as Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs. That change was part of a broader introduction of the Shorelines name at a group of Eastern Ontario locations.

Today, the Shorelines family includes Shorelines Casino Belleville, Shorelines Casino Peterborough, Shorelines Casino Thousand Islands, along with the Kawartha Downs slots venue. All of these sit under the Ontario Gaming East Limited Partnership umbrella. Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which later updated its corporate name to Great Canadian Entertainment, acts as the managing partner for the partnership. At Kawartha Downs specifically, Romspen Investments Corp owns half of the operation, and Great Canadian Entertainment holds the other half.

One of the key dates in the recent history of the property came on December 19, 2018. On that day, Great Canadian Gaming issued a press release announcing the reopening of the facility after it had been closed for a period. From that reopening onward, the slots returned to regular operation until the COVID-19 pandemic forced another province-wide shutdown. As part of Ontario’s Stage 3 pandemic recovery plan, Great Canadian Entertainment restarted 11 Ontario properties on September 28, 2020, and Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs was among those locations brought back online.

The story did not move in a straight line after that. In late 2025, the facility faced the possibility of closure linked to the end of OLG’s Optional Slots at Racetracks Program, which at that point was scheduled to expire on March 31, 2026. Local coverage in The Millbrook Times noted that Cavan Monaghan Township had been told that quarterly gaming payments from OLG to the municipality would phase out in 2027, in line with the scheduled end of the Municipal Contribution Agreement. At the same time, CDC Gaming Reports wrote that Great Canadian Entertainment and Kawartha Downs had been informed early in the process that the casino lease attached to the program would not be extended beyond March 2026.

In December 2025, that outlook shifted. A GlobeNewswire release reported that OLG had reversed its earlier decision to terminate the business agreement with Great Canadian Entertainment at Kawartha Downs. Workers represented by SEIU Local 2 had been active in campaigning to keep the site open, and the reversal meant both the slots operation and the racetrack would continue running instead of shutting down. Great Canadian Entertainment confirmed publicly that it was working with OLG and the property owner toward a new extension of the operating agreement and the underlying lease. The longer-term picture beyond 2026, including how those agreements settle, still depends on ongoing negotiations between OLG, Great Canadian Entertainment, and the Kawartha Downs ownership group, so that chapter is not fully written yet.

Contacting the Venue and Handling Large Wins

If you want to call the property directly, the local phone number is 705-939-2400. There is also a shared toll-free Shorelines line, 1-833-678-0880, which includes Shorelines Slots at Kawartha Downs in its menu. For corporate or media questions aimed at Great Canadian Entertainment rather than the gaming floor itself, the main contact email is [email protected].

When a guest hits a win large enough to trigger the verification process at the cage, the steps look roughly like this:

1. Bring the winning ticket or the printed machine slip to the casino cage counter.
2. Present a valid piece of government-issued photo identification, such as a Canadian passport, a provincial driver’s licence, or a permanent resident card.
3. A cage team member logs the transaction details and, if the payout exceeds CAD 10,000, initiates the required anti-money laundering review.
4. Fill out the forms they provide. These are standard documents used at Ontario-regulated gaming sites.
5. Wait while the review is completed. Most of the time this falls somewhere between 5 minutes and 30 minutes.
6. Once everything is cleared, receive the payout in cash from the cage.

Guests who want to talk through self-exclusion, set limits, or ask about responsible gambling resources can speak directly with staff on-site. For issues that go beyond the property level, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario can be reached through its official Ontario contact channels, and staff can point you in that direction if needed.