The long hard push by Ontario’s gambling agency, deep-pocketed Nevada-based casino giants and Mayor Rob Ford to build a massive casino resort on Toronto’s downtown waterfront is dead.

That shifts the focus to other potential casino hosts — south Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Markham and Vaughan.

However, Paul Godfrey’s ouster as Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. chairman calls into question the agency’s entire $1.3-billion gambling expansion plan.

Also in limbo is Woodbine Entertainment Group’s bid for a full casino — table games in addition to its current 3,000 slot machines — that the not-for-profit says is crucial to thousands of jobs at the Rexdale track and the very survival of Ontario’s horse racing and breeding industry.

Dramatic events Thursday started with Ford, facing certain failure of his relentless push for council to open the door to a downtown casino, abruptly cancelling the special council meeting he had called for Tuesday.

At a hastily called news conference, Ford accused Premier Kathleen Wynne of “playing games” by not committing to a hosting fee of at least $100 million for Toronto.

“If the province won’t agree (to) that $100 million, then folks, the deal is dead. We are not going to carry on the casino debate,” the mayor said, adding he plans to shelve the city manager’s casino report at the next council meeting, in June.

The Star confirmed a short time later that the formula guarantees Toronto $53.7 million a year for hosting a downtown casino.

Ford, who for more than a year has tirelessly touted a downtown casino as the source of “10,000 good-paying jobs,” a revenue bonanza for the city and badly needed convention space expansion, told reporters: “Contrary to what many people have said, I’m not married to a casino, I never campaigned on a casino.”

Even before Ford’s afternoon announcement, councillors led by Mike Layton were collecting signatures on a petition to overrule the mayor and ensure Tuesday’s special meeting goes ahead after all.

“A majority of councillors want to say no to a downtown casino,” Layton said, with speeches and a decisive vote to kill the proposal first floated by Godfrey and then-finance minister Dwight Duncan in March 2012.

By Thursday evening Layton was “within a few signatures” of the 23 required to get the Tuesday meeting called. Timing, however is tricky — by city rules it must be submitted to the clerk’s office between 9:30 a.m. Sunday and 9:30 a.m. on the holiday Monday, he said, when city hall will be shut.

“Clerk’s staff have said they’ll make themselves available for councillors — I’ll deliver the letter to a cottage if that’s what it takes,” Layton said, adding he’s “quite confident” he will get the last few signatures.

If council waits until June and only votes to “receive” the casino report, he added, Ford could try to resurrect the proposal whenever he wants and further prolong the divisive debate that has weighed on the city for too long.

Under the province’s revised hosting fee formula, any take for a new downtown casino would rise from $17.5 million to $39.9 million five years from now. Overall, that’s an increase of $26.3 million — to $53.7 million — from the $27.4 million that would have gone to the city if OLG had not revisited the formula.

Woodbine would get $13.8 million in 2018, up from $10.9 million if the current regimen had been kept.

Ford seemed content to blame Wynne for leaving Woodbine’s casino bid in limbo.

Woodbine vice-president Jane Holmes, however, said she wants the debate to happen next week. The Rexdale track is in a different OLG “gaming zone” than downtown Toronto.

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“We think there’s strong support for expanded gaming here. And so we’re confused as to why at least that issue isn’t dealt with,” Holmes said.

Councillor John Parker, a one-time Ford ally, is backing the call for a casino debate Tuesday.

“I would think the right thing to do at this point would be to put a period at the end of the sentence and the debate would do that,” he said

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