Kane County poised to reverse video gambling ban

Kane County's ban on video gambling may have a short history as a new, slim majority of board members appear ready to reverse the 5-month-old law.

Talk of repealing the ban began almost immediately after it passed by one vote in December.

Assuming all board members show up to vote Tuesday, the county is expected to repeal the ban by a 16-10 vote. That tally factors in votes of three board members who missed the first vote and said they favor video gambling, as does Hollie Lindgren, who has reversed her position.

A vote by the county board's Executive Committee Wednesday put the repeal before the full county board next week despite efforts by opponents of video gambling to keep a revote off the agenda.

Board member Phil Lewis didn't think the issue belonged in Executive Committee. He floated an idea to send the issue back to the county board's video gambling task force. Lewis argued the plan to repeal the ban never went through the proper channels to make it to the committee much less the full county board. "It's not a good precedent for us to accept resolutions from one committee that are really the responsibility of another committee," Lewis said.

Lewis' plan sunk when the chairman of the task force, county board member Jesse Vazquez, said he thought it would be a waste of time. Lewis then tried to argue now is not the time to repeal the ban because the state's budget problems leave the door open to state lawmakers gobbling up video gambling revenue to solve those issues instead of funding capital projects as promised.

The move to repeal the ban first gained momentum via county board member Bill Wyatt's Transportation Committee. Wyatt argued that video gambling money will ultimately fund transportation projects so there's nothing inappropriate about the voting process to this point.

County board member John Hoscheit indicated he's not concerned so much with transportation projects as he is with the fact that, since the county's ban, additional communities have also banned video gambling.

"If anyone has tried to drive around the metropolitan area lately, I don't think there's any shortage in road construction projects right now," Hoscheit said.

Supporters of the repeal argued regulated video gambling will actually cut the number of video gambling machines in the county and ensure the county makes a profit from existing machines. Wyatt also said the money helps fund the state's transportation department, which should be viewed as an ally.

"When you vote to defund the capital bill, then you vote to defund our partner," Wyatt said.

County board member Bonnie Kunkel attempted to get the Executive Committee to support an advisory referendum in November to let voters weigh in on video gambling. That effort received no debate.

The Executive Committee voted 6-4 to place the repeal on the county board's agenda for next Tuesday.