The chief sponsor of statewide gambling expansion legislation in the House plans to rework some aspects of the bill in a bid to get it to the floor for a vote before the end of session…even though it failed to muster enough support from a House Committee on Monday. The proposal includes plans for six new casinos…including one in Danville.
Before the Memorial Day House committee vote in Springfield, Senate Assistant Majority Leader Terry Link said the bill was a win for everyone. He had a message for those in the industry who didn’t like the bill.
“Suck it, because you’re still going to make money in this industry and you know you are,” said Link, D-Vernon Hills.
Senate Bill 7 passed the Senate in February 2017 as part of a package of bills meant to bring both sides together on a so-called “Grand Bargain” for a budget and reforms that never fully materialized. It has since been amended in the House to, among other changes, require local input, add an extra video gambling terminal for the small video gaming parlors. It also allows the revenue to be used for pensions on the state and local level.
The amended Senate Bill would add 6 casinos across the state – one in Chicago, one in Lake County, one in the south suburbs of Chicago, one in Williamson County, one in Rockford and one in Danville. It would also allow more video gambling terminals at the casinos, and allow machines in airports. The bill would allow video gambling machines and table games at horse racing tracks. Representatives from the horse racing industry said that it would help them to offer bigger purses, which would attract more horse owners to Illinois.
The House Executive Committee was one vote shy of passing it to the full floor. State Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island, said he’ll come back and try his luck again before committee.
“We have got to figure out where we can massage it to the first step, get it out of Executive Committee and then to the full house,” said Representative Rita.
Rita said the measure does not include language about fantasy sports or sports betting. With the end-of-session deadline Thursday, that’s something he said lawmakers should take up later.
Other sticking points included a tax increase on operators and the possible cannibalization of other gaming operators because of expansion.
The House amendment to SB7 would boost revenue for gambling terminal operators by increasing the maximum video gambling terminal wager from $2 to $4. The measure would also increase the taxes on operators from 30 percent to 35 percent.
Ivan Fernandez, executive director of the Illinois Gaming Machine Operators Association, said it could take years to implement changes that would increase revenue.
“So we won’t see any benefit from those enhancers for up to two years while the tax is effective immediately,” Fernandez said. “That’s really going to hurt our businesses and our ongoing revenues.”
Fernandez and others also didn’t like the addition of codifying so-called sweepstakes machines they say don’t have near the amount of regulation as video gambling terminals have. He said legalizing sweepstakes machines, which closely resemble video gambling machines, will make traditional video gambling less attractive to terminal operators. Those operators may move away from video gambling.
The mayors of both Danville and Rockford were in favor of the bill, which would bring economic activity and more revenue to their cities. East St. Louis Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks said whatever lawmakers do, they should ensure that East St. Louis’ casino “stays afloat.” She raised concerns about the Casino Queen losing revenue because gamblers would have more opportunities to play elsewhere. If the statewide gambling expansion cuts into the revenue of the casino in her jurisdiction, Jackson-Hicks said that would make it difficult for East St. Louis to pay for pensions.
“We have to make sure that we keep the revenue we have and of course bring more revenue in so that we can begin to really support the pension in the way that it needs to be supported,” Jackson-Hicks said.
She said the East St. Louis riverboat casino saw revenue start to decline when Illinois passed a ban on smoking in places with public accommodations like casinos.
“It wasn’t banned in Missouri, however it was banned in Illinois and that caused a great deal of customers who smoke to go the the Missouri side,” she said.
The bill could be brought up in the House Executive Committee later this week.
