Every August, Exhibition Place transforms, and for a short period, feels like a separate city. The midway appears seemingly overnight, a vibrant, chaotic setup of games and rides supported by walls of prizes, and backed by the shouts of game attendants who have perfected a knack for identifying potential customers in the crowd. Timeless fairground games like Balloon Darts and Ring-A-Bottle draw players in, as they have for the past century. The Canadian National Exhibition has been a staple of Toronto's summer since 1879, always coming to an end on Labour Day. For Torontonians, that Monday closing of the Exhibition is more than just a date on a calendar; it’s the end of summer.
It used to be one of the few places where people could go to publicly test their luck with a game of chance. With the introduction of the screen, the midway left the public sphere.
Where the Midway Lives in Toronto's Memory
What started as the Toronto Industrial Exhibition in 1879 had humble beginnings showcasing Canada's agriculture and industry as well as the arts. By 1912 it had grown to represent the country and changed its name to the Canadian National Exhibition. Today it spans 18 days over 192 acres of Exhibition Place.
It has been the center for over a hundred years. In 1937, one of the largest travelling amusement companies at the time, Conklin Shows, took control of the games, sideshows, and rides. Today, North American Midway Entertainment, who acquired Conklin Shows in 2004, runs the operation. It has grown to include dozens of rides and scores of games. Water Race, Skee Ball, and the Duck Pond are just a few of the games that have been part of it over the years. One in Wins, or whatever the game may be called that year, remains a constant. A game attendant targeting a player who is taking too long to make a move is part of the culture of the game. The harder the game, the bigger the prize, and the logic to keep the game flowing is spelled out for all to see.
Prior to stuffed animals being the standard prize, fairgoers won plaster statues, cigarettes, or hats. The wanting part was consistent through the changes in prizes. That part is why the CNE feels like less of a yearly event and more of a tradition that families do because their parents and grandparents did it.
The Screen Slid Into the Booth's Place
The midway's gradual shift indoors followed the same pattern as most cultural shifts. The transition continued with the introduction of home computers, the internet, and smartphones. At each step, the games of chance shifted further from the fairgrounds and public exposure.
People who used to walk to a booth on the Exhibition Place grounds, give a few dollars, and try to win a prize by knocking down a bottle with a throw, now swipe a screen to find the same appeal. The data shows a dramatic shift in the market. The environment may have changed, but the fundamental idea stayed the same.
Atmosphere Travels
Midway developers have always created games incorporating design principles of atmosphere to mimic the arcade. They understood that adding elements such as surround sound and lighting and placing players in proximity to one another would amplify the experience. These design principles carried on to the digital age. With the introduction of iGaming, Ontario's regulated market exploded. In one year, the market recorded C$82.7 billion in wagers and C$3.2 billion in revenue, with over 2.6 million active player accounts. Swiper Casino, accessible through a swiper casino login, is one of the iGaming companies that has flourished in this marketplace. Like the Ontario market, Swiper Casino offers players a diverse gaming environment, encompassing slots, table games, and live dealer options. All of these gaming elements are designed to give the player a sense of choice rather than guiding them to one option. The CNE is a great example of this design principle. With over 110 games across the grounds, it was designed to ensure that players would find something that captured their interest. Swiper Casino, along with other iGaming companies in Ontario, has taken this principle and leveraged it to create an abundance of gaming options within an atmospheric digital design.
Ring Toss vs. Digital Casinos
Stand on the edge of the CNE midway and watch for a few minutes. Booths are open on three sides. You see who’s playing. You hear the thump of a mallet or the crack of a dart on a balloon. The game is tactile and social in a way that’s almost impossible to separate from the result - losing while surrounded by a crowd still feels like being part of something.
Digital casino formats work through a different set of materials. A slot runs on a screen, with animated reels, a sound design built to carry the moment, and a pay structure that can shift between dozens of configurations. Live dealer tables bring a human croupier into the feed, filmed in real time, so the social dimension travels even into a single-player screen. The interface compresses what used to require a physical room into a few taps on a phone held in one hand.
The game formats themselves have expanded well beyond anything a fairground booth can offer. Slots arrive in every conceivable theme - film, mythology-driven, sports-branded. Table games run in multiple variants of blackjack, baccarat, and roulette simultaneously. A player on a Toronto commute has access to more distinct game formats than the entire CNE has ever offered in a single season.
What the midway had that screens still don't replicate is spontaneity. People don't go to the CNE to play One in Wins. They walk by, slow down, take a stab at it, and before they know it, they're two games in and unintentionally committed. There's a reason online gaming uses lobbies. It's because you can browse without a real end goal, and drift into new games the way people do on the grounds.
The Crowd Stays, Just Differently
Fairground games have always been communal. Part of the fun is achieving something in full view of an audience who may even become briefly invested in your success, like landing a ring or a dart, or even winning the oversized stuffed bear. The midway thrives on the communal experience. Torontonians coming back year after year to win a prize is really a communal experience that marks the summer season for the city.
It could be argued that the switch to personal screens erases this experience. It obviously changed this experience, but it really just moved it. You can't really watch your friends play those games the way you used to, but you can watch them play online or even stream it. The experience has just shifted.
Toronto doesn't lose its 'cultural gravity' just because the game is on a screen. The CNE is one of the biggest events in the city that draws in 1.5 million people over its 18-day run. What makes a game on a screen enjoyable is the same thing that makes people slow down to take part in a fairground game. It's the same instinct that people have when they browse game lobbies to see what's available.
Nostalgia is a huge part of what makes the midway fun. It is actually digitizing its games. Cash and tokens are being removed and replaced with a tap-to-pay version. More digital games are being added too. The reduction in friction on both sides of the physical and digital divide means the format is changing, but the core of the games stays the same.
Same Summer Feeling, Different Venue
After the fair, the rides fold down and Exhibition Place returns to normal. For Torontonians, that means the best part of summer has packed up and left. The CNE deserves this sentiment. The midway is one of the best and offers a range of options. It uses the oldest form of persuasion, which is that the next game might go differently.
The virtual world has more games and is open 24/7. One thing that is different is that it can't be powered down like the carnival. The basic attraction of the chance to win a prize and the ability to draw in customers for one more game are the same for both.
