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MONTREAL Many Montrealers and visitors have sorely missed the secret pool on the mountain this summer, and even as the season draws to a sunny close, a grassroots movement to get the popular pool reopened in time for next year is gathering momentum.

The Royal Victoria Hospital pool on the southern flank of Mount Royal had been growing in popularity for the last decade, as tourism blogs and Internet lists kept outing it as a hidden gem and one of the coolest places to swim in Montreal.

But last summer, the pool closed in mid-August after a man drowned there. Hospital administrators made the decision not to reopen it this summer because their resources were stretched dealing with the Royal Vics imminent move to the new superhospital site in Notre-Dame-de-Grce.

But when Olivier Lapierre, a regular pool user since 2007, learned of the closing this summer, he immediately began gathering evidence that there is strong public support for getting the pool back in the swim by next summer.

Lapierres Save Royal Victoria Pool Facebook page has 508 likes so far. Environmental and heritage organizations are voicing their support for its reopening, and the city councillor for the Peter McGill district where the pool is located is looking into the possibility of making it a municipal pool.

This pool on the slope of Mount Royal, with the trees all around and the exceptional view of downtown, away from the heavy city noise ... It was just perfect, said Lapierre, an urban planner, community and heritage activist, and a project manager with the Quebec Landscape Architects Association.

The McGill University Health Centre had been operating the pool on a break-even basis, by charging a $5 daily entrance fee to the general public and $60 for a seasons pass for employees.

In a letter to Lapierre, MUHC spokesperson Julie Paquet said the hospitals mission is to serve its patients, so it will not maintain the pool once it moves to its new site. But she said the MUHC is open to evaluating any serious offer if a community group or municipality wants to take it over.

Lapierre figures there are four possibilities to keep the pool from becoming another urban ghost left to decay: the city of Montreal could make it a municipal pool; McGill University could take it over if it succeeds in its bid to take over the former MUHC buildings; a non-profit community organization could take it over; or a public fundraising campaign could be launched to save it (like the +Pool project for which New Yorkers are being asked via Kickstarter to buy tiles to help build a floating, water filtering pool in the river.)

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A plea for the secret pool on the mountain

Tom Waterhouse is chief executive of William Hill's Australian operations. Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Fairfax Media via Getty Images

William Hill, the global British betting firm whose Australian operations are headed by prominent Sydney racing identity Tom Waterhouse, has struck a secretive financing deal to funnel millions in punters' losses to Gibraltar.

The group acquired the nation's largest online bookmaker, Sportingbet, and Waterhouse's eponymous online wagering business, last year. Waterhouse was later appointed chief executive.

The financial statements for his company, William Hill Holdings Pty Ltd, show a loan of 334 million ($580 million) from a company in Gibraltar called Steeplechase. The hefty 5.79 per cent interest rate on this loan means $40 million of profits will go offshore, tax free, each year.

There is increasing concern in government and racing-industry circles over the small contribution made by corporate bookmakers in taxes and levies in Australia. News of this William Hill tax scheme is likely to bolster support for proper regulation of corporate gambling.

Already, gambling reform is back on the table in Canberra. A motion by National Party senator for Victoria, Bridget McKenzie, was carried at last weekend's party conference for online gambling to be regulated by the Commonwealth.

Such a move would thwart the big corporate bookmakers Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill from "jurisdiction shopping" to find the best odds on tax and licensing.

Most corporate bookies are licensed in the Northern Territory where, on the most recent figures available, the entire sector paid just $2.3 million tax on turnover of $5.7 billion and profit of $469 million.

National regulation, if judiciously implemented, would prove a boon for taxpayers, the racing industry and the punters. The only losers would be foreign shareholders of the British betting houses that have expanded their interests dramatically here over the past three years.

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Bookie sends millions offshore