The Urbana, Illinois city council recently voted 4-1 to allow bars and restaurants to offer six video gambling terminals instead of five. The comprehensive gambling law passed by the state legislature last year allowed the increase. City staffers said 16 local business owners requested the increase, adding video gambling revenue will allow the businesses to offset minimum wage cost increases and losses from the pandemic. Currently, 18 of the 21 businesses with video gambling have five terminals.
Alderwomen Shirese Hursey said, “Six video games versus five video games—they’re going to play where they’re going to play. Alderman Dennis Roberts stated, “The cat’s out of the bag as far as local gambling in Urbana. I don’t want to encourage it, but I don’t think that the city can necessarily legislate morals.” Alderman Bill Brown, the lone “no” vote, said, “There’s nothing immoral about gambling. It’s not a sin to be poor. It’s exploitation by government and by the video-gambling businesses. We have to be careful about how much it expands, how convenient you make it.”
In the past year, gamblers wagered more than $75 million and lost $6 million at video-gambling terminals in Urbana, producing $1.75 million in taxes for the state and $308,000 for the city, according to the Illinois Gaming Board.
