Video gambling a growing target for candidates

With the promised windfalls of cash from legalized video gambling increasingly in question, the politics behind the massive expansion appear to be steering away as governor hopefuls play to the voters in heated primary contests.

Nearly all of the Republican candidates for governor have now said they will move to repeal the legalization if elected. Meanwhile, Democratic Comptroller Dan Hynes, who is challenging Gov. Pat Quinn for his party's nomination, has said he might take a look at doing so as well - but he has been far less committal.

Regulators say they won't have systems in place to start rolling out the slotlike machines until late this year, so the next governor might have time to halt the expansion before the gambling devices are powered up in thousands of bars, truck stops, liquor-serving restaurants and VFW halls across the state.

The criticism of so-called 'video poker' legalization under Quinn has been evolving slowly during the campaign. At first, many Republicans said they didn't like it, but weren't sure they would fight hard to get rid of it.

Many are still unsure how they would come up with the $300 million the machines are supposed to kick in to help pay for $31 billion in roads, transit and school construction.

But at a debate Tuesday night, five of the six Republican candidates directly said "Yes" when asked if they would repeal the law that will ad as many as 45,000 legal gambling machines.

State Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale said on the WTTW Channel 11 debate that he would use taxes from gasoline to make up the lost funding.

The other candidates include former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, Chicago conservative commentator Dan Proft and Hinsdale businessman Adam Andrzejewski.

The lone holdout appears to be former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna, who is blanketing the TV and radio with ads. He didn't attend Tuesday's debate.

McKenna spokesman Lance Trover said Wednesday that the candidate would "evaluate whether it is a good long-term policy for the state."

And video gambling became a divisive topic in the Democratic debate Monday night.

Quinn didn't answer a question about whether lawmakers should revoke the legalization, instead pointing out he made sure communities were allowed to opt out of the legalization. In the past, Quinn has said he would reconsider the law if lawmakers wanted.

Hynes said, "The answer is: Let's monitor it, because if the revenues continue to drop off we are going to have to find a new source of revenue."

Clearly, the revenue projections are precarious.

A spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has said the office believes any local video gambling bans on the books before the legalization was signed this summer trump that state law.

It isn't known how many cities and suburbs had such bans on the books before the state law was signed.

But, as many as 40 communities, mostly in the suburbs, have approved such restrictions since the law was signed.

And the elephant in the room is Chicago, which had a ban on the books when the state law was signed.

If the Chicago law is not repealed, at least 30 percent of Illinois' population will be covered by a ban.

That throws a big wrench into projections that the state could get at least $300 million from the legalized gambling, says Dan Long, executive director of the legislature's forecasting wing.

The original projections assumed every town in Illinois would allow the machines. It didn't calculate the untold number of cities and counties that already had a ban on the books.

If Chicago doesn't repeal its ban - and Mayor Richard Daley as been rather mum on the issue - Long says "that certainly would have an impact" on the projections.

Meanwhile, there is little doubt legalized gambling of any form will continue to be the political football it has been for decades.

During the Democratic debate, Quinn tried to take a shot at Hynes for supporting up to three new state casinos.

"I don't agree with that at all," Quinn said. "We are not going to be the Las Vegas of the Midwest. He is for three casinos and I'm not."

Hynes countered: "That is interesting from the guy who signed video gaming and now has gambling in every bar and restaurant in the city."

The law Quinn signed legalizing video gambling has no limits on the total number of machines that can be authorized in the state. It places a cap of five per authorized establishment.

But under the original projections, there could be up to 45,000 machines.

That is akin to more than 40 new casinos the size of the ones in Illinois today.