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Illinois Gambling Expansion Bill Approved by Senate

Posted on December 5th, 2010

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With a 31-20 vote from the Illinois Senate, the bill that allows a huge expansion for gambling facilities of any kind from casinos to betting parlors, was approved. However, the House doesn’t seem to have enough time to consider voting on it since they have only less than ten days this coming January to review it. In addition, the House does not fully entertain much of the major gambling bills being passed. Governor Pat Quinn has expressed his limitted enthusiasm on bills that call for the expansion of gambling. The Champaign Democrat, Senator Mike Frerichs, is the only area senator who voted for the bill. Senator Dale Righter, a Republican of Charleston, and Dan Rutherfor, a Republican of Chenoa, voted against the gambling expansion bill. The bill in question, Senate Bill 737 would permit the nine prevailing casinos of the state to increase their gambling facilities at a factor of 66% before 2013.

The bill, if passed into law, will take effect in all new casinos for Danville, Rockford, Lake County and south suburbs. Not to mention that it will also be a backing a betting facility in Chicago, which most people have expressed opposition against. One reason the Senators voted for the gambling expansion bill is because it will be providing a number of jobs amounting to almost 4000 gaming staffers, which will be a big help for the citizens and a big source of profit for the government. It will also be operated as well as owned by the city government. Experts also said that with the support riverboat gambling has been having, there will be an estimated 1500 or so jobs that will be made avbailable to the citizens this coming years. D-Waukegan Senator Terry Link added that the bill wil alsol be augmenting the income of racinos because it allows for these facilities to house slot machines. He added that not only it will add jobs and revenue, it will also attract offshore businessmen. Link said, “Is it a huge expansion? Yes, I’m not going to deny it, but we’ve got a huge deficit in the state of Illinois. We’ve got huge problems in the state of Illinois. So you don’t look at little things to fix it. You look at big things to fix it. This is the way to do it.”

Senator Mike Frerichs foresees a dramatic rise on the casino license applicants as a number of groups will be attracted to the area. Frerich insisted that there will be a lot of support out there for it. “Everyone from the mayor to other elected officials to their chamber of commerce. There seems to be a general consensus that it’s not what they ideally would like. They’d like to have some large manufacturers like they had for years. They’ve been trying very hard to attract some other companies and have had a lot of successes. But this is something that would employ a thousand to 1,200 people and bring in a lot of money to local coffers for redevelopment.”, said the Champaign Democrat Senator Mike Frerichs.

Like most of the antigambling movements, Senators Righter and Rutherford opposed the gambling expansion, and reasoned out that the state’s economic glitches should not be resolved by gambling. “This is far too big,” the Charleston Republican Senator said. “And I’m especially concerned about having a Chicago casino that is owned by the city. My constituents read about the graft and corruption already up there, and they wonder what this is like and how this will reflect on them and the state of Illinois.” Senator Rutherford on the other hand said that he is strongly opposing the bill. He claims that the growth of the casino industry is antithetical to the growth of the local economy. He believes that in a time of need, casino expansion is not the anwer. He further added, “The only reason this can even have any life like this today is because Illinois is so short of money. This becomes the desperate move. In my opinion, good public policy is not done when you’re under the pressure to make decisions like that.”