Editorial: Facts don't support gambling expansion
While Pat Quinn was governor, he twice vetoed plans to license more casinos and add slot machines at horse-racing tracks.
Now, with Gov. Bruce Rauner installed in Springfield, proponents of expanding gambling say they'll try again.
State Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat, and State Rep. Bob Rita, a Blue Island Democrat, promise a new gambling bill, but one that builds off previous efforts to add casinos in Lake County, Chicago, Rockford, Danville and the south suburbs as well as up to 1,200 slot machines at Arlington Park. Rauner has said he's open to more gambling where there's local support.
But it's clearly time to fold on new casinos.
Illinois casino gambling is in decline, with drops of $86.7 million in revenue and 1.4 million in admissions in 2014 compared to 2013, continuing a trend that's been developing for years, as Daily Herald Staff Writer Erin Hegarty wrote.
It wasn't always like that. Casinos have contributed billions of dollars to the state since Illinois' first riverboat casino opened in 1991 in Alton, with communities that host them also getting a cut of the money. But the onset of legalized video gambling in bars, restaurants and other locations in 2012 gave people alternatives.
Now, it's evident that adding new casinos simply rearranges the pot of gambling dollars, rather than adding to it. The opening of the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines 3½ years ago coincided with sharp drops in revenue for Elgin's Grand Victoria, Aurora's Hollywood Casino and Joliet's Hollywood Casino. Each saw revenue drop at least 11 percent last year. Rivers' revenue rose, but barely.
A casino in Chicago would have the same effect on Rivers, and on all the suburban casinos. The suburbs that now have casinos would lose, the state would not likely gain and only Chicago might come out ahead.
"Gambling expansion would just shift people from one place to another and would not increase revenue," said Illinois Casino Gaming Association Executive Director Tom Swoik.
Though many in Lake County have sought a casino for years, it would face nearby competition from Rivers and potentially from a casino planned in Kenosha, leaving a small territory to draw from.
While we can't support more casinos, we remain sympathetic to adding slot machines at Arlington Park, if only because the racetrack now seems oddly left out with the proliferation of new gambling sites.
The massive gambling expansions that were vetoed by Quinn were crafted to draw as much legislative support as possible.
The time is past for such a bill, as the casino revenue numbers clearly show.