Robust Bill Establishing Gambling Machines in Illinois


An 816-page bill introduced and passed by the General Assembly, if fully realized, transform Illinois into the gambling capital of the Midwest. The legislation legalizes sports gambling machines inIllinois; sanctions six new casinos, including one in Chicago; increases the number of video gambling machines as well as the maximum bet; and transforms the state’s horse racing tracks by permitting casino operations at the state’s three existing tracks while allowing two more to open.

The Goal of a Gambling Capital
The number of state-sponsored gambling “positions” seats to place a bet inside a casino, bar will grow from almost 44,000 to nearly 80,000. That’s about four times the number of positions in any neighboring state, according to a review of gambling statistics. Within two years, Illinois could have more than 7,000 video gambling machines in Illinois, 5,000 lotterylike sports betting kiosk locations, 16 casinos, five racinos and online sports gambling accessible on millions of mobile phones. The bill even allows video slot and poker machines at Chicago’s airports, O’Hare and Midway.

Illinois has the lowest credit rating in the country, and a recent report by Moody’s Investors Service found it is one of two states deemed ill-prepared to weather another recession. The other is New Jersey. Lawmakers are wagering that the massive gambling expansion will help pull the state out of its financial crisis while making significant contributions to a $45 billion building campaign called Rebuild Illinois, the state’s first capital plan in a decade.

It will take years to determine if this historic bet pays off
If past outcomes offer any hint, the results are likely to fall far short of what lawmakers are promising. In 2009, during the depths of the Great Recession, the Illinois legislature made a similar gamble: In less than 48 hours, lawmakers introduced and passed the Video Gaming Act, the state’s largest gambling expansion since the creation of the lottery in 1974. Legislators said video gambling would generate $300 million a year to fund another building program, this one called Illinois Jobs Now! Within months, the state began borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars, eventually racking up more than $10 billion in new debt.

An investigation in January revealed that it took nearly a decade for video gambling to reach revenue projections, exacerbating the state’s financial woes in the process. Lawmakers also skimped on funding for regulatory and social costs. Meanwhile, a handful of video gambling operators reaped massive profits, in part because the state has one of the lowest tax rates on video gambling in the country.

The rapid expansion of sports gamblingmachines in Illinois and casinos without any public vetting of what the capacity or the impact of the expansion will be is quite disappointing and may end up having the same sort of negative consequences that earlier gambling expansions did.

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