Casino Issue Likely to Resurface in IL
With lawmakers in Illinois now celebrating the passage of a law to sort out the state’s $100 billion public pension deficit, it is not outrageous to speculate that the expansion of casino gambling in the state is likely to come to the forefront with the upcoming start of a new legislative session.
The state’s casino industry is poised for just such a thing, the Quad City Times reported this week.
Illinois Governor has compared gambling to “dessert”
The state’s governor, Democrat Pat Quinn, has repeatedly likened gambling to “dessert” and said on several occasions that his expectation was that legislators first address the meat and potatoes business of resolving Illinois’ dire pension deficit, the worst such shortfall in the United States.
With pension fixes now having been signed into law, many in the state are expecting lawmakers to ask to see the dessert menu.
“We fully expect a plan will be introduced,” Tom Swoik told the Quad City Times. Swoik is the executive director of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association.
Previous legislation would have allowed more land-based properties
When the Illinois legislature reconvenes in January, lawmakers who support putting new land-based casinos in the Land of Lincoln are likely to re-introduce a bill that never made it to a vote before the spring term wrapped up in late May.
That bill, known as SB1739, would have allowed for the construction of five new land-based casino properties in the Chicago area, including one in Rockford as well as a casino for downtown Chicago.
The plan also called for the placement of slot machines in Chicago’s two major airports, O’Hare and Midway.
At one point, lawmakers had even put forward a plan to allow regulated online wagering in the state of Illinois, a component that was later stripped from the bill in an effort to make the legislation more palatable to the gambling-averse Governor Quinn, who has twice in the past vetoed casino expansion bills.
Illinois often considered ripe for iGaming regulation
Online gambling certainly is not out of the question for Illinois, however. Illinois is the fifth most populous state in the U.S. and contains its third largest city, Chicago.
The Land of Lincoln has long been on the lips of those speculating which states might be next in line for the regulation of real money online poker and other forms of online betting, in no small part because Illinois, the state with the worst credit rating in the country, is desperate for cash.
Last spring, when lawmakers touched on the issue, only one state – Nevada – had a regulated real money online betting market and it was brand new.
In the intervening months, markets have launched in New Jersey and Delaware, with New Jersey likely to be an especially attractive model for similarly populous states such as Illinois, which already has some casino properties. The launch of iGaming in the Garden State, an event that occurred late last month, has roundly been declared a success.
Whether or not proponents of expanded betting – both online and off – in Illinois will meet with success in the state capitol of Springfield remains to be seen. As for the Governor, his intentions with regard to the issue remain unclear.
A spokeswoman said that the Governor’s office is “not sure what the outlook is for the next year.”
