Mt. Prospect moves toward video gambling ban
The state may allow video gaming in the suburbs, but Mount Prospect probably isn’t playing.
Last week, the village board introduced an ordinance that would prohibit video gambling. The Illinois Gaming Board began issuing video gambling licenses Friday to establishments in various suburbs.
Mayor Irvana Wilks said that when the state passed the Video Gaming Act in 2009, she had heard comments from restaurant owners indicating the terminals would help business.
She said she then looked at the act and noticed that the state had grafted it to language about funding roads and bridges. “They clearly didn’t (go together). It was a funding mechanism,” she said.
And there was very little detail about local enforcement beyond fines of up to $5,000 for businesses guilty of an offense. “If someone has a minor playing, I can’t take their business license away,” she said. “I can’t take their liquor license away.”
She concluded, “This is a piece of legislation written by the (gambling) industry.”
Wilks was joined in her lack of enthusiasm by her fellow board members.
Most of them also lamented the lack of local control. They also questioned whether the state was in a position to enforce the law.
“It’s sad when government is being required to seek funding through gambling operations,” trustee John Matuszak said.
Trustee A. John Korn said it is too bad the state can’t spend as much time working on balancing its budget as it does passing this type of legislation.
“We have cut expenditures year after year after year, and we have (had) a truly balanced budget except for every time the state hands down one of these unfunded mandates,” he said.
“My objection is that it is built on smoke and mirrors and false hope,” trustee Arlene Juracek said. “To think that we are funding a state capital program through gaming is just an act of sheer and utter desperation.”
She said at least two members of her family have had gambling issues.
“If this is allowed to proliferate, how many more of those lost souls are going to be lost to this kind of thing,” she said.