Video gambling debate revived in Kane County

Video gambling didn't win favor with the Kane County Board the first time it voted on it.

Then, pitched as a necessary funding leg of the state's first capital bill in a decade, video gambling failed to win enough votes to be revived by the county board's legislative committee.

But a vote Monday may represent the first step in reversing the county's ban.

The county board's transportation committee voted unanimously in favor of a new law to repeal the county's video gambling ban. The vote followed some heavy lobbying, both by county transportation staff and local union members.

The more communities that opt out, the smaller that pool of money gets, and the more endangered the capital bill itself becomes to actually having the money to fund projects.

Then local unions put their mouths where their money already has been.

Scott Roscoe, president of the Fox Valley Building and Construction Trades Council, told the committee up to 50 percent of his union construction workers are unemployed and video gambling will help create jobs.

"We're looking for anything that will help put people back to work," Roscoe said.

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 has also recently pumped thousands of dollars into the campaign accounts of two key figures who may play a large role in reversing the video gambling ban.

The union donated $5,000 to Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay's campaign war chest on Jan. 26. It followed up four days later with a $2,500 donation to Bill Wyatt, the chairman of the county board's transportation committee, which approved a reversal of the video gambling ban Monday.

The issue now heads to the county board's executive committee for a vote. McConnaughay runs that committee.

County Board Member Drew Frasz said there is no reason to even contemplate reversing the ban at this time.

"I don't see anything substantive has changed other than some people don't like the outcome of that vote," Frasz said. "The only people who spoke in favor of (video gambling) were special interests who stand to profit from it."

Frasz said any revote should wait until after the November elections when Illinois may have a new governor with a capital funding plan that doesn't include video gambling.

Wyatt said even members of special interest groups are Kane County residents.

"To me, this is just extremely important for us to act on this now," Wyatt said. "It's not fair to tell people who are unemployed to wait to the next election."

The move to reverse the ban is likely to be approved by the executive committee, said county board member Hollie Lindgren. From there, it will head to the full county board for another vote. Lindgren is the chairman of the county board's legislative committee. She tried to get that committee to push forward a reversal on the ban almost immediately after it went into place. But the votes weren't there to get anything out of the committee. Lindgren said she feels optimistic about reversing the ban, but she expects another close vote.

The board voted to ban video gambling by a 12-11 vote back in December. Lindgren said she plans to vote to reverse the ban. She voted in favor of the ban last time. Board members Gerald Jones and Mike Kenyon missed the December vote. They've also said they will vote to reverse the ban.