Chicago tavern and other business owners who take bets on video games or allow their employees to do so would be subject to $5,000 fines under an ordinance proposed at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
City officials contended the ordinance is necessary because illegal gambling on video poker, blackjack and slot machines has become prevalent in the city, with gamblers collecting their winnings or paying their losses in cash to bartenders or store owners.
Revenue Director Hugh Murphy said that some gambling operations bring in thousands of dollars a day, some players frequently gamble away their paychecks and there is evidence of minors playing the machines at some establishments.
Business owners and players now can be fined up to $500 for using the machines to gamble.
“What we’re doing is giving more tools to the Police Department to enforce the law,” Murphy said of the proposed ordinance. “The machines themselves are not illegal. It’s the people who are paying off on them, that’s the problem.”
Besides the $5,000 penalty for a business owner, fines of up to $1,000 could be imposed on players of the devices under the measure. A business convicted of three offenses in five years would lose its business license and no automatic amusement machine could be placed on the premises for a year.
In other council business Wednesday:
– Mayor Richard Daley proposed an ordinance that would allow home-based business owners to hire one employee. Now, only residents can work in connection with a home business.
– Daley proposed an ordinance to expand a program that provides mortgage assistance to city police officers who buy homes in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Since the program was started four years ago, it has been available only to first-time buyers, and only 40 officers have signed up.
But under an amendment proposed Wednesday, the program also would be offered to officers who already own a home.
– Ald. Patrick Levar (45th) proposed an ordinance intended to protect firefighters in buildings with “truss” roofs, which have a tendency to collapse during fires.
Under his proposal, truss-roof buildings would have to display a special emblem made of reflective material and be registered with the Bureau of Fire Protection.
Two firefighters were killed in a Feb. 11 fire in the Beverly neighborhood at a tire store with a truss roof. The roof’s collapse wasn’t considered the cause of the deaths, but it may have hindered efforts to rescue the men.
– Officials proposed an ordinance to replace the “unregulated proliferation of unsightly individual newspaper boxes” with standardized newsracks that would be consolidated on city streets.
– Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) proposed a measure that would prohibit convenience and grocery stores from selling single cans or bottles of beer.
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