Surveys taken for Arlington International Racecourse refute a statement by Arlington Heights Village President Arlene Mulder that 80 percent of residents do not want a casino, track officials said Thursday.
Saying he was “startled” at Mulder’s comment, made after a razor-thin victory in a casino referendum on Tuesday, track spokesman Paul O’Connor released results from earlier surveys showing much greater support for a casino.
On Wednesday, Mulder had cited what she perceived as the mixed feelings of most people in the town-the vast majority both wanting the track to survive but not actively seeking a casino-to explain the closeness of the vote.
Reacting to the track’s release of its survey figures, Mulder said on Thursday that her perception of people’s views was based on “conversations with hundreds of residents over a year,” and pointed out that until now the track’s survey results have not been made public.
“Eighty-percent really support Arlington, love it and are proud of it,” she said.
“A similar number aren’t really looking for a casino. But faced with the challenge of protecting a very valuable asset, if they think it will take a casino to keep the track open, you get the result we saw in the election.”
The results of the two surveys also show how voters viewed the possible ramifications of a casino and help explain why some tactics used by the opponents were not successful.
According to surveys taken in November for the track by Market Shares Corp. of Mt. Prospect, 44 percent of residents questioned were in favor of a casino at the track, 46 percent were opposed, and about 10 percent had no opinion.
Because the survey had a 5 percent margin of error, O’Connor said, “that put the (question) in a statistical dead heat of 50/50.”
When residents were asked how they felt about casino gambling at the track if it were the only way to keep the track open, the favorable opinion rose to 58 percent, opposition dropped to 35 percent, and 7 percent had no opinion, according to the telephone survey.
On Tuesday, an advisory referendum proposal on whether casino gambling should be allowed at the track squeaked to victory with a margin of 38 votes out of nearly 19,000 cast.
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Responses to a separate February telephone survey of 400 registered voters by Voter/Consumer Research in Alexandria, Va., suggest that appeals by the casino opponents to residents’ fears of crime probably fell on deaf ears.
Three themes reiterated by the major organization of casino opponents, the Concerned Citizens for Self-Determination, were that a casino would bring crime to the village, that the track was trying to buy the referendum by spending more than $75,000 on the race, and that the village shouldn’t have to bail out track owner Richard Duchossois with a casino.
Yet the surveys showed that 54 percent of residents believed a casino would not increase crime based on studies that riverboat gambling had not increased crime elsewhere in Illinois.
Also, 65 percent, when told that the track owners would “spend a lot of money on the campaign for casino gaming at the track,” agreed with the statement that “track owners have the right to support the issue.”
Regarding Duchossois, 80 percent of residents disagreed with the statement, “I’m going to vote against the casino proposal because I am pretty much opposed to anything Dick Duchossois wants.”
“When I saw the results of that survey, I pretty much stopped worrying about a lot of what the opposition was doing,” O’Connor said.