McHenry County hears two sides to video poker

Gambling opponents and backers of the state's plan to use video gambling to fund new roads and infrastructure improvements squared off Wednesday before a McHenry County panel weighing whether to ban the machines.

The county board's Liquor License Committee held a public hearing on the issue, getting state legislators' and the public's take before making its recommendation to the full county board on a potential ban from more than 40 eligible county establishments.

What they heard were passionate arguments on both sides, from opponents who say permitting more gambling will degrade the community's character, to supporters who say the plan, while far from perfect, is necessary to improve and expand the county's overburdened roadways.

Banning the machines, State Rep. Mike Tryon said, could jeopardize the huge financial benefits the county is set to reap from the state's $31 billion capital plan, nearly a third of which is expected to be funded through the gambling expansion. The plan includes more than $177 million for Tryon's district alone, including the long-awaited Algonquin Western Bypass and widening of Route 47 through Huntley. His district includes Huntley, Algonquin, Lake in the Hills and Crystal Lake.

"(The plan) includes significant benefits to the economic development future of McHenry County," the Crystal Lake Republican said. "Without these (gambling revenues), we will have to pare down the size of the capital bill."

But Tryon's colleague, State Rep. Jack Franks, said he's been assured by Gov. Pat Quinn that projects in the capital plan are safe, with or without video gambling. Whatever financial benefits gambling expansion brings, Franks argued, are outweighed by social problems it will cause.

"It's a fundamental question of what is your vision for McHenry County," said Franks, a Democrat from Marengo. "Is it to have accessible gambling at every corner bar, or is it to be free of that?"

The legislators spoke before a crowd of about 100, many of them bar owners or union laborers who say they are desperate for the additional money and jobs they believe video gambling - and the construction it's expected to fund - will provide.

"I've never had to work harder to make ends meet," Randy Kief, owner of Kief's Reef near McHenry, told the county panel. "Video poker probably isn't the complete answer to all our problems, but it can help. I can use any kind of help you can give me."

The county has set no timeline for when it may make a final decision on whether to allow video gambling. Any action the board takes would affect only about 45 establishments eligible for video gaming in unincorporated portions of the county.

The Cook and DuPage County boards already have voted to bar the machines from areas where they have jurisdiction, joining more than 200 municipalities across the state. The Lake County Board has yet to make a final decision, but its finance committee is recommending a ban. Kane County, like McHenry, has not decided.

Ban: No decision deadline