Gateway Casinos CEO Passes Away

In addition to becoming a director in July 2017, Santo assumed the position of CEO at Gateway in October 2013.

Gateway Casinos CEO Passes Away

According to Gateway, Santo went away suddenly on August 17. At this time, the operator has not provided any more information.

In addition to becoming a director in July 2017, Santo assumed the position of CEO at Gateway in October 2013. Although he had previously stated that he planned to retire at the end of 2019, he volunteered to remain on to support the company through the epidemic.

Santo supervised a major network development for Gateway while serving as CEO. Included in this were the purchases of real estate from Playtime Gaming in 2015 and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation in 2016.

Due to these measures, the network of Gateway today includes 29 gaming establishments spread across British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario.

Santo has a variety of various positions within the gaming sector before to joining Gateway. These executive jobs included ones with Paris-based Bally's Grand and the Horseshoe Las Vegas hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. In addition, he had a brief stint at Caesars Entertainment.

“Tony’s mission was to establish Gateway as Canada’s premier entertainment and gaming company,” Gateway president Tolek Strukoff said.

“You could often find Tony visiting sites and staff from dawn to dusk connecting about their work, families and lives.

“Tony was an iconic leader in the US and Canada and grew Gateway from a small regional gaming company to one of the largest gaming companies in Canada. However, Tony would say himself he didn’t do it – we did it together.

“Tony was an outstanding leader, colleague and friend and he will be greatly missed. On behalf of all of Gateway’s employees, I extend our deepest sympathies to the entire Santo family.”