OTTAWA — Pulling up short in his dash to bring a casino to Ottawa, Mayor Jim Watson announced Monday afternoon that he now thinks the Rideau Carleton Raceway is the only acceptable site for a new gambling facility in the city.

Watson, who has supported the notion of a full-blown casino in Ottawa since the provincial Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. first raised it, sent a note to councillors Monday saying he intends to ask them for a resolution telling the OLG that the raceway is the only location the city will accept for a new casino.

The agency is in the process of drawing up a shortlist of potential casino operators and, under a plan to which city council agreed last fall, the OLG will eventually present one bidder — with its preferred location — to the city for a yes-or-no vote.

If council goes along with Watson’s new plan, all bidders will be told that Ottawa will only say yes to a casino attached to the Albion Road racetrack, which has long housed OLG slot machines.

City council had previously asked the OLG to give the raceway operators a privileged spot on the shortlist and Watson has mused about keeping the slot machines there as a “satellite facility” if the best bid the OLG gets is for some other location, but that’s all just been talk, a fact Watson acknowledged in his Monday note.

“It was becoming increasingly clear that there would be no future role for the (Raceway) given the OLG’s most recent position. Therefore, I do not believe we should jeopardize the Rideau Carleton Raceway operation by not being crystal clear to the OLG prior to the start of its RFP process,” Watson wrote, referring to the “request for proposals” the agency would send to its shortlist of bidders, seeking final bids.

“I believe that being clear about our Council’s and community’s preferences at this stage in the process will ensure we get the best deal possible for Ottawa,” the note continued. “Identifying the (Raceway) as the City’s only acceptable location will allow potential operators to propose ways to build on the success of the existing facility and bring larger economic benefits to the City, while responding to community concerns.”

Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney, who has been pushing to have city council reopen the question of whether to bring a casino to Ottawa, said Monday that Watson’s announcement was “a step in the right direction.”

However, Tierney said that while the raceway is a far better option than a downtown casino, he is still seeking more detailed information before he can say whether the mayor’s raceway-or-nothing approach will completely settle his concerns.

City council had the chance to establish such a limitation when it first voted that Ottawa should in principle have a casino, but councillors chose not to do so. Ottawa’s decision — it was the first large city in Ontario to proceed to a vote in response to OLG’s expansion plans — came after the minimum period for public discussion required by law. Other municipalities have taken many more months to debate gambling expansion. No studies were conducted on the public-health impact of gambling addiction in the city or on the possible economic benefits of a casino, and critics, including several councillors, warned at the time the decision was made without enough information.