Another Toronto city councillor has pledged to vote against a downtown casino resort, making it even more likely the proposal is dead before pro-casino Mayor Rob Ford and his executive committee have their say.

Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre) revealed Thursday she plans to vote against opening the door to a multi-billion-dollar casino-anchored resort when the issue goes to council, likely next month.

“Where I’m at with the casino is that I think — and I think I reflect my . . . residents’opinion — is we’re not very keen on a downtown casino,” she said, adding she will support expanded gambling at Woodbine race track.

The Exhibition Place board member is worried about potential impacts if the casino-resort and hotel were built there, including on a new hotel being built south of the Direct Energy Centre.

Twenty-three votes are needed to win at the 45-member council. With at least a month before decision day, 22 councillors have now declared that they will definitely vote No on a casino downtown. Two other councillors say they are leaning to the No side — one of them, Ana Bailao, strongly.

One undecided councillor, Josh Colle, now says he likes city manager Joe Pennachetti’s casino report released Monday, and is likely to vote Yes to opening the door to a downtown casino — if the province’s Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. meets all 43 conditions recommended in that report.

“Some would say those conditions can’t be met,” including a demand for a hosting fee of at least $100 million per year, noted Colle (Ward 15, Eglinton Lawrence).

Colle brings the number of declared Yes voters to 8, leaving 13 councillors undecided or undeclared. The casino would still go down to defeat if the undecideds broke 12-1 in its favour, which is highly unlikely.

More than 100 members of the public have signed up to make deputations to Ford’s executive committee at a special meeting Monday-Tuesday called to consider Pennachetti’s report.

Ford, who has used his pulpit to push hard for the project that he says will bring thousands of jobs to the city, told reporters Thursday: “I’m not concerned. I think we’ll be OK, and we’ll see what happens on Monday and Tuesday.”

Asked if he had any thoughts of deferring the issue to a later meeting, Ford said: “Again, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it but as of now, we’re bringing it forward on Monday and Tuesday and we’ll take it from there.”

Councillor Peter Milczyn, a member of Ford’s executive who says he’ll remain undecided until OLG reveals Toronto’s hosting fee, joked to reporters: “I heard there’s some suggestion that we can all sleep in on Monday.”

The meeting isn’t cancelled, he added, but he and some other undecideds on the executive have talked about voting that the issue be deferred until after it is clear how much revenue Toronto stands to glean from the resort.

If the deputations go ahead, the executive will get an earful from Dr. David McKeown, the city’s medical officer of health.

In a letter to Ford and his allies, McKeown calls Pennachetti’s “social contract” recommendations “weak” when it comes to protecting Torontonians from the negative health impacts of a new casino.

McKeown notes Pennachetti’s dozens of recommendations don’t include those made earlier by the board of health, including limiting casino hours and eliminating loyalty programs. OLG has reviewed them and indicated “minimal commitment” to most, he said.

“The City Manager’s report recommends that the City would only require OLG to ‘review and consider’ measures related to harm mitigation,” McKeown notes.

“Unlike the wording for other required conditions in the social contract, this language is weak and the effect is that if the OLG were to do nothing more at all it would still satisfy the City’s conditions.”

With files from Daniel Dale and Paul Moloney

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ROLLING THE DICE

The NO voters

Maria Augimeri

Shelley Carroll

Raymond Cho

Janet Davis

Sarah Doucette

John Filion

Paula Fletcher

Mary Fragedakis

Mike Layton

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Chin Lee

Josh Matlow

Denzil Minnan-Wong

Pam McConnell

Mary-Margaret McMahon

Joe Mihevc

John Parker

James Pasternak

Gord Perks

Karen Stintz

Adam Vaughan

Gloria Lindsay Luby

Kristyn Wong-Tam

Publicly leaning No:

Paul Ainslie

Ana Bailao

Publicly undecided:

Glenn De Baeremaeker

Michelle Berardinetti

Gary Crawford

Mike Del Grande

Mark Grimes (could not be reached)

Doug Holyday

Peter Milczyn

Ron Moeser

Cesar Palacio (to announce position this week)

Anthony Perruzza

Jaye Robinson

Michael Thompson

David Shiner

The Yes voters:

Vincent Crisanti

Frank Di Giorgio

Rob Ford

Doug Ford

Norm Kelly

Giorgio Mammoliti

Frances Nunziata

Josh Colle

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