Illinois: Rolling dice on gaming expansion

Having convinced Illinois legislators that Gambling revenues are limitless and will solve all fiscal problems, consequences be damned! now try to put the brakes on.


Rolling dice on gaming expansion
By ANDREW THOMASON
Illinois Statehouse News
SPRINGFIELD - Gaming expansion in Illinois has yet to hit a jackpot, but the odds are moving in its favor.

A plan allowing four new Downstate casinos, one in Chicago and electronic gaming at six horse-racing tracks was passed out of an Illinois Senate committee Tuesday.

But the different factions of the gaming industry in Illinois have very different opinions about the legislation.

Tom Swoik, a lobbyist who represents most of the casinos in the state, said this expansion would flood an already saturated market. More gaming in the state only would serve to hurt the existing industry, which would, in turn, hurt the state's cut, Swoik said.

"It just does not make good business sense to expand an industry in a shrinking market at a time when revenues are already down almost a third," Swoik said. "We've lost over 30 percent of our business, while the surrounding states have held steady or had minimal losses."

New gaming only would exacerbate the industry's existing problems, Swoik said.

Former state Sen. Robert Molaro, representing the Hawthorne Race Course Inc., said that isn't the case, and that the state isn't close to a saturation point for gaming.

Instead, he said, the expansion would create construction and service jobs.
[Wow! Does this sound familiar?]

"This is just common sense," Molaro said. "We're going to put hundreds - if not thousands - to work."

State Sen. James Clayborne Jr. raised a concern that if a racetrack started to make more money from electronic gaming, it would make business sense to shift from a focus on racing to a focus on electronic gaming. Clayborne, an East St. Louis Democrat, has the Casino Queen in his district.

Molaro pointed to language in the legislation that requires tracks to run a minimum number of races per year.

Gaming expansion can be a hard sell, and this particular bill has yet to be considered by the full Senate (which could happen as early as Wednesday) and the House of Representatives. The legislation is Senate Bill 737.