 The Illinois Senate voted 31-20 Wednesday in favor of a plan that
allows for five additional casinos and electronic gaming at horse
track facilities. There are currently 10 licenses for casinos in the
state.Under the plan, new casinos would operate in Chicago,
southern Cook County, Danville, Rockford and Waukegan.
"Is it a huge expansion? Yes, I'm not going to deny it. But we
have a huge deficit in the state of Illinois, we have got huge
problems in the state of Illinois, so you don't look at little
things to fix it, you look at big things to fix it," said the bill's
sponsor, Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan.
Link said the expansion would bring in about $1 billion in
revenue for the state. Most of this would come through license fees
for and various taxes on the gaming.
Lawmakers concede that more gaming isn't their first choice to
create jobs and generate revenue. Sen. Michael Frerichs,
D-Champaign, said he'd like to see General Motors return to
Danville, but that isn't happening.
Supporters of the plan said it is good because it will bring new
construction and permanent jobs to the state. They are hoping the
plan will prop up an industry that has seen declining revenue. Since
January 2008, revenue collected by the state is now down nearly 30
percent, according to figures from the bipartisan Commission on
Government Forecasting and Accountability.
"It's not the best thing we could do. It's not good, but it's the
only thing available for new revenue," said Sen. William Haine,
D-Alton.
Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, said a casino in his backyard
could keep Illinois gamers from going up to Wisconsin to play the
slots.
"Now we have an opportunity to bring those Wisconsin dollars to
Illinois," Syverson said. "So it's good for Illinois in two ways.
One, it's creating new jobs and new revenue, but it's also bringing
out-of-state money here."
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The possibility of more legal gambling in the state has the
existing industry fighting among its parts. Casinos are opposed to
the expansion, saying that more gaming would saturate the market,
causing more loss of revenue. On the other hand, racetrack owners
say they need all the help they can get to stay relevant.
Haine represents an area of the state that has both casinos and
racetracks.
"I've got a track and a boat, so I struggled to make it so it was
win-win," Haine said. "That's what I'm hoping. ... I hope it is. If
not, we'll come back and adjust it."
Despite Senate approval Wednesday, the plan is far from becoming
a reality. It still needs approval from the House of
Representatives, which won't be back in Springfield until a
lame-duck session of the General Assembly in January. To become law,
this plan would need to be approved before the inauguration of the
new legislature on Jan. 12.
Quinn said during a Wednesday news conference that he views the
plan as too expansive.
"I haven't seen the whole bill, but what I heard about it when
people talked about it seemed awfully top-heavy to me," Quinn said.
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Online:
Senate Bill 737
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON] |
