Illinois state Senator Dave Syverson of Rockford said the Illinois Gaming Board’s process for approving five regional land-based commercial casinos in the Chicago metropolitan area—including his district–is “ridiculous.” Syverson said, “With the casinos closed and the video gaming closed, you have 250 Illinois Gaming Board employees that are sitting around doing nothing” when they could have been working on approving the casino application for Rockford, which was submitted nine months ago.
Syverson added, “The staff that’s working on the application, they’re still there, they’re still being paid. In addition, you have all this other staff with nothing to do who could have been assisting them in getting it done. Covid-19 should not have slowed it down, it should have helped them to expedite their work.” He said, “The gaming board is telling us they hope to have the license approved by October, which is 12 months from the time it was submitted. It is just ridiculous that it’s taking this long for a group just to review a simple application.”
The Rockford City Council has an agreement with Hard Rock International for Hard Rock Casino Rockford, which still awaits final approval from the IGB. The $311 million, 65,000-square-foot casino at I-90 and State Street would offer 1,500 slot machines and 55 table games and a 1,600-seat entertainment venue. Hard Rock International said the Rockford venue would generate an estimated $50 million to $60 million in new annual tax revenue for the local government and create 1,000 permanent jobs.
Syverson said no work, even preliminary site prep, can be done in the interim. “We’ve asked if the location can, at their own expense, start doing some development. Can they do the land work? Can they work on getting the sewer laid? Can they do that stuff now, while the weather is good, so they can get a jump on it? And the gaming board said, ‘No, you can’t. You can’t lift a shovel on that property.’ It’s really ridiculous.”
Meanwhile, the Ho-Chunk Nation is moving forward with its $405 million casino in nearby Beloit, Wisconsin. The tribe’s land-trust application recently was approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and now awaits final approval from Governor Tony Evers.
Syverson noted, “If Beloit opens up first, you’re going to get people that are going to go there and they may be comfortable going there and they may continue to go there even after Rockford opens up. It’s just sad that this is something we could have had opened and generating revenue for local governments, generating revenue for the state, creating jobs. It’s like they just don’t care about doing things that are going to help us kick-start our economy to get it back going well.”
Besides Rockford, other communities approved for a casino include Waukegan, South Suburbs, Williamson County, Danville and downtown Chicago.
