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Kane County, Grand Victoria Raise Objections To Bill Allowing Slots At Arlington

Posted on May 26th, 2010

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Legislation to allow slot machines at Illinois race tracks has been stalled in the House. The bill which passed a House committee last May 6 ran into obstacles and did not make it to the full House of Representatives.

Legislators are set to vote on the measure this week before the May 28 deadline when they return to Springfield after a two-week hiatus. Over in Kane County, a large group of people that included city mayors and other public officials, executives of the Grand Victoria riverboat casino in Elgin and representatives of charitable institutions gathered Monday morning to present and discuss the possible adverse effects of allowing slots at Arlington Park race track. Among the different areas of concern they enumerated would be financially impacted by the measure were the local nonprofits, jobs and infrastructure.

Elgin Mayor Ed Schock said since the Grand Victoria started operations, the city has carried out several projects that cost a total of $236 million using money paid by the riverboat casino to the city.

Schock said a greater part of the projects involved improvements on roads and buildings. The mayor said putting slots at Arlington Park will not help address the state’s revenue problem because of the limited market for gambling in the area. He said there would merely be a shift in gambling activity from one facility to the other, by the same group of people. He said it would not be considered new revenue for the state because it is just a transfer of revenue as the slots are believed to steal businesses from two riverboats.

Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner said the constantly changing gambling rules in Illinois do not provide much motivation for gambling companies to invest in the state. He said in order for the state to see growth and revenue, it should allow for a somewhat relaxed and low-risk situation for gambling operators. Once gambling facilities have made a lot of profit by investing in Illinois, they are surely going to put more money into the state, he said.

The manager of the Grand Victoria said riverboat profits have seen a big dive. Jim Thomason said since 2007 and the start of the implementation of the smoking ban, casino profits tumbled 33 percent or around $143 million less. The recession has made the situation even worse. As revenues dropped, unemployment climbed, as more than 250 workers have been laid off. The state has also lost more than $2 million in annual proceeds from the riverboat.

Thomason said the riverboats in Kane County, particularly the Grand Victoria are highly vulnerable to slots at Arlington Park because about 90 percent of the casino’s customers come from within a 25-mile radius of Arlington Park. The Grand Victoria’s management has estimated a further loss of 22 percent and even up to a dire 30 percent for the casino.

He said Kane County’s recent recall of its ban on video gambling in its unincorporated areas have no significant bearing as opposed to slots at Arlington because video gambling machines have a maximum payout of only $500.

As a consequence, charitable organizations that are the beneficiaries of the riverboat grants are affected. Kane County has made contributions of almost $40 million to local charitable institutions such as CASA, an agency providing legal assistance to molested children, and the county’s drug court.

Thomason said, Arlington Park, with its future 1,200 slots machines, plus Des Plaines with its new casino, and the fact that the two facilities are very near each other would be an unwelcome scenario for the riverboat casino. Additional marketing would have to take place that would saturate the areas where the riverboat casino derives its customers. Those would be enough factors to entirely change the situation in Kane County.