DuPage County Board may outlaw video gambling

Gamblers could have 35 fewer options if the DuPage County Board votes today to prohibit video gambling.

Just weeks after proposing a ban on gambling machines at nearly three dozen eligible bars, restaurants, golf courses and social clubs in unincorporated parts of the county, the board is planning to make its opposition official.

There are some, however, who believe it is moving too fast.

"We have not held any public forums to get input ... and I don't feel due process is being had," board member Dirk Enger said. "I'm totally against the video poker part of the (state infrastructure) bill, but I'm also against the resolution on the county board floor without some input."

Board member Brien Sheahan crafted the proposal banning the machines in unincorporated areas and believes he has enough votes to make it stick.

"No one's contacted me expressing any concern," he said Monday. "It (gambling revenue) is not money these businesses have now, it's money they may have."

The board is slated to vote at its 10 a.m. meeting at the county administration building, 421 N. County Farm Road, Wheaton. Its finance committee will discuss it two hours earlier.

While more than a year away, talk of installing the devices has become a galvanizing topic ahead of the 2010 statewide elections. The devices were allowed as part of a statewide $31 billion capital spending package approved in July by Gov. Pat Quinn. The machines are expected to generate as much as $367 million each year for the state.

Officials from several of the affected DuPage businesses and clubs said they wouldn't install the devices even if they were legal. Others said they would like to install the machines, but don't plan to rally against the ban.

"That would be a big source of income for us," said Terry Hildreth, club manager of the Wheaton VFW Post 2164. "But I can't make it to a meeting."

Kathy Bukowy is the manager at JT's Porch Saloon & Eatery near Lombard. She believes the devices might help attract some of the customers lost when the statewide indoor smoking ban went into effect.

"We certainly think it would have made business much better," she said. "It has everything to do with us, but we can't do anything about it."

Representatives of the Illinois Coin Operators Association are expected to protest the proposal and ask the board to postpone its vote.

The county would be only the second government body behind Rosemont to outlaw the machines. West Chicago is planning September public hearings to decide the fate of devices there.

DuPage stands to lose an estimated $350,000 a year by outlawing the devices, county finance officials said.

Counties and towns that allow the devices receive 5 percent of a machine's net revenue. The state receives 25 percent of the net revenue while the bar owners and the terminal operators evenly split the remaining 70 percent, according to the state law.

At a meeting of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce's Legislative Committee Monday, the group discussed the impact of such a ban in the state's fifth-largest city after hearing a presentation from representatives of Illinois House Minority Leader Tom Cross. City officials estimate a ban of the machines at the 125-plus establishments with appropriate liquor licenses could cost the city more than $1 million a year.

"Making a decision at this time without knowing what all the rules and regulations are going to be is a little foolish," said Jim Bergeron, owner of Jimmy's Bar and Grill in downtown Naperville.

But others believe the issue is pretty black and white.

"We don't have to know all the ins and outs to determine whether we know this is right or wrong," said Dave Weeks, a Naperville Unit District 203 school board member.

Sheahan also spoke to the committee about the county's plans and urged other municipalities to follow his lead.

"Neighborhood casinos are the wrong way to fund infrastructure," he said. "The social costs far outweigh whatever benefit we may receive."