Rivers Casino owes county $3 million in unpaid taxes
A recent Illinois Supreme Court decision will allow Cook County to collect about $3 million in unpaid taxes and generate another $1 million in tax revenue annually from Midwest Gaming, owner and operator of Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, the county said Wednesday in a news release.
Separately, a state appellate court affirmed the county's legal right to tax area gambling machines.
The Supreme Court's decision ends a three-year battle over the legality of a Cook County video gambling tax approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners in November 2012.
"We are pleased with the Supreme Court's decision confirming our long-held belief that the county's tax on video gaming machines is legitimate and lawful," Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in the news release.
Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for Rivers Casino, took a different view.
"We respectfully disagree with the court's ruling and we are considering our options," he said in a statement.
After the Supreme Court's denial of Midwest Gaming's petition to appeal, the Cook County Department of Revenue expects a one-time payment for outstanding taxes from 2013 and 2014, as well as what is owed this year for an approximate total of $3 million.
Midwest Gaming sued soon after the tax went into effect in 2013, and through the hearing process an agreement was reached that the county would not enforce the tax while the case was in dispute, but that Midwest Gaming would pay back taxes if it lost.
Under the county ordinance, the cost of decals for video gambling machines is $1,000 per year, while decals for video poker machines in bars and restaurants is $200.
A separate recent appellate court decision affirmed a circuit court ruling for the county in a case brought by Illinois Coin Machine Operators. Among the appeals court's findings was that the county is not pre-empted by the Riverboat Gambling Act and the tax is within the county's home-rule powers.
Unlike Midwest Gaming, video poker operators have been paying all along. The tax is expected to generate about $350,000 for 2015 and $400,000 for 2016.
Michael Gelatka, president of the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association, said operators felt the $200 charged by the county for each machine was exorbitant, since the state law allows local towns to charge licensing fees of only $25 per machine.
"We feel as though the Video Gaming Act assigns a proper license fee of $25, and anything aside from that is kind of above and beyond what the act was meant to have provided," Gelatka said.
In the Midwest Gaming case, the county lost in circuit court but won in appellate court, a verdict upheld when the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case. The Coin Machine Operators still have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court, though Gelatka said that's unlikely.