Northwest suburban towns slow to take on video gambling

Most Northwest suburbs will greet 2010 without taking a formal position on video gambling.

Many mayors aren't in any rush to tackle the issue, blaming the delay on a lack of state rules and regulations surrounding the video gaming act signed into law in July.

Others want to see what bordering towns do first.

Buffalo Grove, Hanover Park, Mount Prospect and Rosemont have banned video gambling, and Arlington Heights is poised to do so as well while leaving the door open for the gaming at Arlington Park and Trackside.

But the majority of Northwest suburbs - including Des Plaines, Schaumburg, Wheeling, Streamwood, Elk Grove Village and Hoffman Estates - haven't formally talked about it yet.

The new law allows video gambling in licensed bars, restaurants, fraternal organizations and truck stops.

Proceeds are earmarked to fund a third of the state's $31 billion public works program.

Towns that want video gambling are not required to approve it. Towns that want to ban it, however, have to take action.

Schaumburg Mayor Al Larson said his village board may discuss video gambling next month. However, neither residents nor business owners are clamoring one way or the other, he said. When the village polled 90 businesses about video gaming in August, only a few even responded.

In addition, Schaumburg is bordered by towns that similarly haven't taken a stand, so many are waiting to see who blinks first, Larson said.

One of Schaumburg's neighbors, Hoffman Estates, may look favorably upon video gambling. So might Des Plaines, which will be home to the newest casino, slated to open in 2012.

"We have some business people who definitely want it and said it would really help in these tough economic times," said Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod. "But the state regulations might be a year away. I don't see the point in dealing with it before then."

Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan said he personally is leaning toward video gaming, but hasn't heard from residents one way or the other.

"There just isn't a groundswell of residents speaking out one way or the other," Moylan said. "I think the money will open the door for construction projects which will lead to jobs in our community. Des Plaines has a high unemployment rate right now and we need those jobs."

A typical bar or restaurant owner with the legal limit of five machines could make anywhere from $38,000 to $74,000 a year in profit - after taxes and splitting profits with the licensed distributor.

The city or village gets 5 percent of a gambler's losses, or an estimated $6,300 to $12,300 from each establishment. The state gets 25 percent and the bar splits the rest 50-50 with the distributor.

Conservative estimates by state officials say the average video gambling machine should make between $70 and $90 a day. In Louisiana and West Virginia, machines average $135 a day.

In all, gamblers are projected to lose $127,750 to $246,375 to the slots in each bar or restaurant every year.

Meanwhile, there's no fear that video gambling machines will start showing up in towns that have not taken a stand.

The machines must first be licensed by the Illinois Gaming Board, but - as McLeod says - the board's rules and procedures for them could be a year away from being finalized.

Every establishment wanting machines would have to pass a background check by the gambling board and secure a license; the same goes for every distributor and every person selling or working on the machines.

Some communities, like Palatine, have the additional check of requiring businesses to apply for special use permits.

"Even though our board hasn't taken a vote, no one is going to just put a (gambling) machine into their restaurant one day," said Village Manager Reid Ottesen.

However, legal authorities say it's doubtful that local ordinances to regulate gambling will have any teeth, since the law authorizing video gambling specifically pre-empts them. A community can decide to have machines or not - after that, the rules are all made by the gambling board, officials said.

Video gambling has proved to be a tough sell in many communities. So far, about 40 jurisdictions have opted out, including unincorporated areas of DuPage, McHenry, Lake and Cook counties.

The Rev. Tom Grey, a veteran fighter of legalized gambling in Illinois, said some mayors are under the false impression that if their towns vote against video gambling, they'll be overlooked when the state decides how to spent the $31 billion in revenue.

But the mayors aren't solely to blame for not taking on video gambling, he says.

"Citizens should be at meetings demanding their city councils deal with this," Grey said. "Citizens need to know what is going on in their communities. If they don't, they're going to wake up with casinos in their neighborhoods."

• Staff Writer Joseph Ryan contributed to this report.