The Illinois state Senate yesterday approved a gambling expansion measure and sent it to the House, where it is likely to be opposed. The bill proposes to add four new casinos and allow existing casinos to expand. There is also an amendment that would overrule a Gaming Board decision to order Penn National Gaming to divest Argosy properties in Illinois. In 2005 the Gaming Board ruled that for one company to own three of the nine Illinois casinos was an improper concentration of the market.

The amendment would change the regulations so that any licensed owner holding three or more licences on 31 May 2007 may continue to hold those licences. Critics of the amendment point out that Penn National has contributed almost US$500,000 to Illinois politicians over the last three years. There are no rules in the state that prohibit giving money to politicians being lobbied, nor are there any campaign contribution limits.

The Senate voted down a bill to allow casino patrons to continue smoking next year when a smoking ban in public places comes into force on 1 January 2008. However, the bill is likely to come up again for consideration and the riverboats may yet be exempted. A constitutional deadline passed without the Legislature agreeing a new state budget, largely through political in-fighting, so it will now have to go into overtime.

The measure to allow more gambling in Illinois would grant subsidies to the struggling horseracing industry and fund the Governor’s expensive health care initiative. At present Illinois’s nine casinos are limited to capacity for 1,200 gamblers at a time, but this would increased to 2,000 under the proposed legislation. A new Chicago land-based casino would have a 4,000 capacity and three other new casinos in the Chicago area would be allowed 3,500. Electronic poker would also be introduced for countrywide play.

The US$2 billion gambling plan that scraped through by a 30-29 vote in the Senate will now go to the House. It is thought that most legislators there are against allowing any new casinos although could be sympathetic to some expansion of existing casinos. It will take a lot of compromise before the gambling plan can move forward and add new tax dollars to the Illinois annual budget.
(E-06.01.07)

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