Illinois state Reps. Bob Rita and John Cabello have sponsored an expanded gambling measure, HB3564, for the third consecutive year. The bill would allow five new casinos, located in Lake County and the city of Chicago, along with Vermilion, Winnebago and south Cook counties. The legislation recently was assigned to the House Executive Committee for review. Former Governor Pat Quinn vetoed the 2013 and 2014 versions of the bill.
Now gaming expansion supporters are hanging their hopes on Governor Bruce Rauner, who last year said, “If voters and municipalities would like to see more gaming, I will be supportive of that.” Rauner also was applauded for removing controversial Aaron Jaffe as chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board, replacing him with Springfield attorney Don Tracy.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a friend of Rauner’s, recently said he would direct revenues from a future, publicly owned Chicago casino toward resolving the city’s $20 billion pension crisis and Chicago Public Schools’ $10 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. Previously Emanuel had said he would direct casino revenues toward school construction and modernization, which then-Illinois Governor Pat Quinn required, along with ethics reforms, in casino bills that he subsequently vetoed.
Said Emanuel, “I happen to be for a Chicago casino. And I’m saying that all of the resources would go toward shoring up our pensions. It is under discussion right now in Springfield, and I want to make sure Chicago has a strong voice in its own economic future that, if there’s gonna be a casino, it’s dedicated to our pensions. Given the fact that we have a record of passing it, a record of getting it to the governor’s desk and my opponent disagrees with it, it is a revenue source that again is consistent with avoiding a property tax increase, which we’ve done four budgets in a row and three pension agreements in a row.”
Emanuel’s opponent in the April 7 mayoral runoff , Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, actually is not against a Chicago casino. Garcia recently stated, “At this point, I can’t say casinos would be off the table because there are many serious challenges, and the downgrade of the finances of the city and some of the sister agencies are an indication there’s going to be some heavy lifting to be done.”
Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley also recently said he met with Rauner “and he’s not opposed to a casino in Waukegan,” located in Lake County, one of the areas targeted for a casino in Rita’s bill.” I suspect that if a bill doesn’t come out of the House this spring, it will come out in the veto session in November,” added Motley. For the last decade, the city has set aside land for a casino at Fountain Square of Waukegan in anticipation of securing a gaming license. “I’m still adamant that Waukegan will get a casino, and I’ll continue to say that until which time I know it won’t happen,” said Motley.
There was one effort to reduce gaming in Illinois. State Senator Darin LaHood recently introduced a bill that would curb the growth of electronic video gambling machines, which numbered more than 19,000 throughout the state by the end of 2014. LaHood’s measure would require an establishment seeking a video gambling machine license to prove that 80 percent of revenues for the previous two years came from food or beverage sales. Applicants seeking a license renewal would have to show that half of their revenue came from food or drinks in the previous year.
The measure also would require license holders to keep the games out of the view of children, to post signs indicating that individuals under age 21 may not use the machines and to operate the games only during normal business hours. Existing gambling parlors would be grandfathered in.
Also under LaHood’s proposal, individuals would not be allowed at a video gambling location if they have placed themselves on a state list barring them from casinos, or if they are on a state list of people who ran illegal gambling operations, cheated at casinos or committed other acts barring them from casinos.
LaHood said he’s not against video gambling, but the spread of the machines goes beyond what the legislature intended when it approved the games in 2009. “I wasn’t here in 2009 when the original law was passed, but my understanding was that it was to specifically help bars and restaurants. Fast forward to floral shops, liquor stores, Laundromats. I don’t think anybody anticipated that you’d have the proliferation of video gambling machines in all these places outside bars and restaurants.”
At the end of last year, 4,675 establishments across the state offered a total of 19,182 video gambling machines. Statewide, in 2014 gamblers put more than $2.4 billion into the machines and lost almost $659.5 million. On average, for every dollar put into video gambling machines in Illinois during 2014, gamblers got back about 73 cents.
The state capital of Springfield is a particular hotspot for video gambling machines. The city council recently approved an ordinance requiring that an establishment seeking video gambling machines show that at least 60 percent of its revenue came from food or beverage sales. In 2014, gamblers put more than $82 million into the Springfield machines, netting the city almost $1.2 million in revenue; players lost more than $21.7 million. And in January 2015 alone, gamblers spent more than $8 million at the city’s 150 establishments that host video gambling machines, and lost more than $2.1 million.
