Gaming machines have been popping up in Norridge establishments since the village lifted its ban on video gambling last year, and now a corporate-owned chain of video gambling cafes is opening the town’s first gambling-centric business.
The Norridge Village Board on Aug. 10 issued a gaming license to Stella’s Place, a Des Plaines-based chain of cafes with more than 25 locations in Illinois, according to the Illinois Gaming Board.
Stella’s Place will be the first corporate-run video gambling establishment to open in a town where the gambling scene has so far been confined to bars and a few locally owned restaurants. Gamblers have spent more than $10 million combined at the eight places in town that have added machines since last year when the first gambling terminals opened at Newbes, a sports bar on Irving Park Road.
Unlike the bars and restaurants that draw in regular patrons to eat or drink and offer gaming on the side, Stella’s Place openly markets itself as a gambling cafe that caters to a niched crowd of adults over 40, according to Brian Wilson, director of operations for Laredo Hospitality.
Wilson, whose proposal to open a Stella’s Place in nearby Lincolnwood was turned down earlier this year, has described the business as a cafe-style environment versus a typical bar.
Customers can order beer, wine, and light meals from a small bar stationed near the front entrance, but the marketing campaign for Stella’s Place caters specifically to gamblers by offering “the comfortable feel of being in your own living room” while “enjoying a premium gaming experience,” according to the Stella’s Place website.
The gambling area has individual gaming stations with movable ottomans designed for “social gaming with friends,” according to marketing materials from Laredo Hospitality. Some Stella’s Place locations offer charging stations for phones and purse hooks, but it’s unclear whether the Norridge location will have those amenities.
The cafe will open in the Regency Plaza strip mall, in a corner space that was previously occupied by a yoga studio.
Charity Johns, chief operating officer for Laredo Hospitality, did not have an opening date scheduled for the new location at 5050 N. Cumberland Ave., but it would likely open after the state completes the inspection process, according to Kathy Gaseor, an executive assistant for the village.
Norridge has raked in nearly $40,000 from its 5 percent of the cut from the 36 gaming terminals in operation in the village as of July, according to the state’s gaming board. That’s in addition to thousands more in annual licensing fees bars are required to pay to the village. Each bar that hosts video gambling pays an upfront $1,000 per machine, plus a $1,000 annual licensing fee to the village.
The Harwood Heights Village Board considered video gambling last year at a committee of the whole meeting, but officials decided against it after Mayor Arlene Jezierny expressed concerns that gaming could negatively impact the town’s image.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.