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Batavia VFW asks city to drop ban on video gambling

Batavia will reconsider its ban on video gambling, at the request of leaders of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post.

Dale Richard, past commander of Overseas Post 1197, told the city council Monday the post is losing business at its bar and weekly bingo night to nearby fraternal organizations in unincorporated Kane County, where video gambling is permitted.

Proceeds from bingo nights and bar sales at the post help pay for upkeep of the buildings and grounds at 645 S. River St., as well as educational and charitable efforts.

In particular, Richard believes people are going to the Batavia Moose Lodge on South Batavia Avenue and the Aurora Turners Club on Mitchell Road instead of the VFW post.

Richard said the VFW had been doing just fine financially until the other clubs got video gambling. The Moose Lodge received its license in November 2013; the Turners Club, in December 2012.

The state's April 2014 video gambling revenue report shows the Moose Lodge made $12,594 net terminal income on video gambling after taxes, and the Aurora Turners Club earned $18,057. Half those amounts go to the clubs' video game terminal operators.

Richard estimates the VFW post could make $2,000 to $3,000 a month off video gambling.

The council will discuss the matter at a joint committee-of-the-whole meeting. No date was set, but Mayor Jeff Schielke said city administrators should be given several weeks to research the proposal.

Batavia banned video gambling in November 2009. The 10 aldermen who voted for the ban didn't like the way the state was regulating the industry at the time, or how the state had turned to gambling to solve funding shortfalls for capital improvements such as road and bridge repairs.

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