However, the gallery was filled with folks who were there to
talk about another important issue for the city: legalized video
gambling. At last week's meeting of the council, it was mentioned
that the video gambling issue was going to have to be addressed by
the council. This had originally come up at the June 26 meeting when
Alderwoman Marty Neitzel and several others reported receiving calls
from Shawn Taylor of Logan Lanes asking that the city revisit the
issue. On that night, ordinance committee chair Tom O'Donohue was
absent.
Last week, when O'Donohue said he wanted to have a committee
meeting to address the parking problems, the video gambling was
brought up, and he said, yes, it was something that needed to be
addressed.
However, Tuesday night, O'Donohue wasn't expecting the group that
arrived. Before the meeting he advised them that the first purpose
of the meeting was parking and that they would move on to video
gambling if time allowed.
Time did allow for approximately 20 minutes of discussion on the
topic before the ordinance meeting had to adjourn for the regular
committee of the whole meeting.
When O'Donohue turned the subject over to gambling, Taylor was
there to address the council. He said he had been selected to speak
for a group of business and club owners who felt that for the good
of their businesses, the city should permit the legalized gaming
machines.
Taylor began by talking about the fact that several communities
around Lincoln, such as Mason City and Mount Pulaski, have already
approved video gaming. He also noted it will be legal in the
unincorporated areas of Logan County. He emphasized that this meant
the Elks Lodge can have the legalized gaming machines while Logan
Lanes cannot, even though they are only about a mile from each
other.
Taylor said this left businesses such as his and others that are
inside the city limits at a disadvantage when competing for
business.
Taylor had statistics regarding the possible revenues for the
city of Lincoln. He said he had taken the figures from the Illinois
gaming website and they indicated that at a rate of 5 percent of all
revenues from the machines, the city of Lincoln could take in
$270,000 annually from legalized gambling. However, he also said he
thought the number was too high and personally estimated the city
would see revenues in the area of $135,000 annually.
He noted that there are currently 24 businesses that would be
eligible to apply for the gaming license, but he believes only 15 or
16 actually would.
Taylor said he felt the community would dictate by patronage
whether or not the machines stayed in Lincoln.
"If the community doesn't like this, they won't play," he said.
"If they don't play, the machines will go away."
He also told the council that time was an issue in getting the
machines into Lincoln. Currently there is a backlog of applications
awaiting approval on the state level. Taylor said the state won't
look at a Lincoln business application until the city approves this,
and every day more applications are pouring into the state. The
applications are being approved on a first-come, first-served basis.
If and when the city of Lincoln would approve the machines, local
businesses would go to the bottom of the backlog.
To help expedite the process, Taylor said he had an attorney look
at the city ordinance as it is now and write an amended ordinance
for the city to approve. If city attorney Blinn Bates endorses that
document, then the city will not have to go through the process of
voting on the writing of an ordinance; they can simply adopt what
has been given to them.
During discussion, the point was made that in order for the city
to earn $270,000, a total of $5,000,000 would have to be spent by
consumers on video gaming. Mayor Keith Snyder, who opposes the
machines, emphasized that meant $5,000,000 lost by Lincoln and Logan
County residents.
The breakdown of the revenues received from video gaming is 5
percent to the municipality, 35 percent to the business owner, 35
percent to the machine owner and 25 percent to the state.
Taylor was asked if he knew how many machine owners there are in
Illinois. With help from a member of the audience, he responded that
there are currently 73 companies in Illinois that will lease the
machines to businesses such as his.
[to top of second column] |
Alderman David Armbrust spoke up, saying he was not necessarily
against businesses already in Lincoln having the machines, but what
worried him was that there would be businesses popping up for the
sole purpose of gambling. He didn't want to see every empty
storefront turn into a video gaming room.
However, Taylor reminded the council that with the exception of
truck stops, the gaming license can only be issued to businesses
that have a liquor license. He also asked Snyder how many licenses
were still available in the city; to which Snyder said eight to 10.
Alderwoman Marty Neitzel said she felt that the city was going to
have to allow the machines. She noted that with video gaming being
everywhere else in the county, it would be easy for people to leave
Lincoln to go gaming. She said that would cause harm to the
businesses in town and she didn't want to do that.
Alderwoman Jonie Tibbs agreed.
The ordinance committee consists of O'Donohue, Neitzel, Tibbs,
Melody Anderson and Jeff Hoinacki. Anderson was absent for the
evening. Tibbs and Neitzel supported recommending to the full
council that the ordinance be changed, but Hoinacki was hesitant to
go along with them.
Hoinacki is opposed to the video gambling, but he also noted that
at the Tuesday night meeting, the only ones present were those in
favor of the machines. He said in the past the city had heard from
opponents, and he felt those people had the right to come back and
speak again before a vote was taken.
Alderwoman Stacy Bacon noted that Taylor had said time was of the
essence for local businesses. Because of that, she wasn't interested
in seeing the process dragged out.
O'Donohue said he, too, wanted to be fair to everyone. He didn't
want to push this through without giving everyone a chance to
comment. At the same time he understood Taylor's request to make a
decision soon.
In the end, a decision was made to recommend that the council
approve video gambling within the city limits and adopt the amended
ordinance provided by Taylor. The recommendation will be placed on
next Monday's voting agenda.
However, it won't be voted on until July 24.
On that date there will be a special meeting of the ordinance
committee at 6 p.m. The public is once again invited to attend this
meeting and speak about the gaming ordinance. Immediately after the
committee meeting, there will be two public hearings, then a
reconvened session of the July 16 voting session.
During the voting session, video gambling will be on the voting
agenda. However, if the council is not prepared to vote, they have
the option of tabling the motion to a future date.
NOTE: Mayor Keith Snyder also provided four full pages of
information about video gaming. Those pages are provided in an
accompanying story, "Snyder: The
economic impact of video gambling."
[By NILA SMITH]
Past related articles
-
April 29, 2010
--
City briefs: 'Lawnmower Run,' food drive,
gaming machines and more
-
June 25, 2010
--
New Illinois law legalizing video gaming
machine gambling gets mixed local reaction
-
Sept. 14, 2010
--
Video gaming stalled again
-
Oct. 13, 2010
--
City hears warning: Video gambling is
addictive
-
Jan. 26, 2011
--
To gamble or not: Community invited to
speak on video gaming
-
Feb. 22, 2011
--
Gambling: hot topic at tonight's council
meeting
-
Feb. 23, 2011
--
Community speaks out on video gaming
-
May 9, 2012 --
By default, city prohibits video gambling
-
June 28, 2012
--
City urged to make a decision on video
gaming
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