Most gamblers believe that no matter how bad their luck is running, everything can change with the next roll of the dice, turn of the wheel or flip of a card.
State Rep. Robert Rita, D-Blue Island, who has been leading the battle to expand casino gambling in Illinois, believes his luck will change because a new dealer is at the table, Gov. Bruce Rauner.
As he has done in the past, Rita has introduced two gambling bills in the state legislature — one creating a mega-casino in Chicago and another creating five new casinos in Illinois (in Chicago, the south suburbs and in Lake, Vermilion and Winnebago counties).
“Our biggest obstacle to getting a casino (expansion) bill passed was the governor,” Rita said, referring to former Gov. Pat Quinn. “I’ve talked to Gov. Rauner about this (casino expansion) the other day, and he indicated he’s open to the idea. I got the impression he’s going to have his staff look at it and then sit down with me to talk about it.
“The previous governor would say he had a problem with casino legislation, and then when you changed the legislation to address his issues he would say he had another problem. He flip-flopped. I don’t think the new governor will be as flip-floppy.
“All I want to know is how to write legislation that the governor can sign. Let us know what you want and what you have problems with so we can address those issues. The previous governor kept moving the goal posts, and I never had a conversation with him where he said, ‘this is what I want in a casino bill.'”
I should note that Quinn blamed Rita and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, for the failure to call Rita’s casino expansion bills for a vote, even though Quinn for years had expressed reservations about casino expansion. In 2012, Quinn vetoed a bill that would have created five new casinos, including one in Chicago, claiming that it failed to provide enough oversight of casino operators and did not set aside enough money for education.
The following year, state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, who had sponsored that 2012 bill and had spent years trying to increase the number of casinos in the state, withdrew from the fight, citing a “perceived conflict of interest.” Madigan surprised many Springfield observers by handing the casino baton to Rita.
Under Rita’s legislation, creating a Chicago casino with up to 10,000 gambling positions, the city would select the site and in cooperation with the state’s Capital Development Board acquire the land. The casino would be owned by the state (Mayor Rahm Emanuel has indicated a desire to have Chicago own the casino).
The Chicago-only casino bill requires that at least $8 million a year be shared with Cook County for capital expenditures or public pension payments or both, and that at least $6 million be shared with many south suburbs.
The suburbs listed in the bill are Beecher, Blue Island, Burnham, Calumet City, Calumet Park, Chicago Heights, Country Club Hills, Dixmoor, Dolton, East Hazel Crest, Flossmoor, Ford Heights, Glenwood, Harvey, Hazel Crest, Homewood, Lansing, Lynwood, Markham, Matteson, Oak Forest, Olympia Fields, Orland Hills, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Park Forest, Phoenix, Posen, Richton Park, Riverdale, Robbins, Sauk Village, South Chicago Heights, South Holland, Steger, Thornton and Tinley Park.
The legislation suggests that a regional development plan be created to invest in capital projects for the south suburbs. However, if no such plan is created, all of the communities would get equal shares of revenue from the Chicago casino.
Why communities such as Orland Park, Tinley Park and Palos Heights are included in the revenue-sharing agreement is baffling because the argument for a south suburban casino has centered around generating tax revenue and jobs for financially struggling towns that have large minority populations and those three don’t qualify in that regard.
Rita’s other bill would give legislators and the governor an option if they don’t favor adding just one casino. It would include a Southland casino located in either Bloom, Bremen, Calumet, Thornton or Worth townships in Cook County as well as a smaller casino for Chicago and the three others.
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Since the conversation began about adding casinos in Illinois, the state has approved a video gambling law that put thousands of slot machines in taverns, restaurants, and veterans halls. The total number of these machines now rivals the total number of video games in all 10 Illinois casinos.
The operators of the existing casinos contend that the gambling market is saturated and an increase in venues, rather than increasing tax revenue for the state, would merely steal patrons away from existing casinos.
Yet, the Ameristar casino in East Chicago, Ind., had 1.2 million admissions in 2014, and the Horseshoe in Hammond 2.1 million, with those two casinos generating more than $90 million in total tax revenue for Indiana, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission’s website.
Some south suburban political leaders have claimed that more than 70 percent of the gamblers at Northwest Indiana casinos come from Illinois. Even if that figure is exaggerated, 50 percent of the revenue from those two casinos alone would mean an additional $45 million in tax revenue for Illinois, and I haven’t included figures from the smaller casinos in Northwest Indiana.
Revenue from a Chicago casino, which would draw tourists and conventioneers, would dwarf the combined take of the top two Indiana casinos.
“If you look at the budget of Illinois, the state is in dire need of revenue,” Rita said. “Expanding the number of casinos is a viable option that makes sense not only for the state and the city of Chicago, but the south suburbs in particular.
“We’re talking about drastically cutting social services in this state. Why not consider a new revenue stream to reduce the impact of those cuts?
“… The new governor has at least indicated he is open to discussing the expansion of casino gambling. There are different dynamics at work now, the financial situation is more pressing, and once the new governor gets up to speed on this proposal, I believe it is something that the legislature will support.”