The cash-starved state government’s plan to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue a year through video gambling is running behind schedule.
Officials originally said video gambling, which lawmakers legalized last year, would begin by the end of the year.
“Nobody has been licensed yet,” Gene O’Shea, a spokesman for the Illinois Gaming Board, said last week. “I would guess it would start in the first six months of next year. It could easily get pushed back.”
Board officials have said they lack the staff to regulate the huge program that is planned. The agency recently chose a company to install a central communications system that would be linked to more than 45,000 new gambling machines at restaurants and bars across the state.
Legislation that would allow Chicago to be part of the program is stalled in the City Council Committee on License and Consumer Protection. The committee chairman, Alderman Eugene Schulter (47th Ward), said he wanted more information from the state about how video gambling would operate before he would hold a public hearing on the measure.
“I’m still analyzing if this is something the City of Chicago should engage in,” Mr. Schulter said. “I personally have my reservations.”
The Chicago City Council needs to opt-in to video gaming in order to create massive infrastructure improvements and jobs for the city. Video gaming would generate substantial revenue for the City’s capital projects, including $600 million for Chicago Public Schools and $2.7 billion for Chicago-area public transit improvements. Chicago needs to approve video gaming legislation as an answer to our capital project needs. For more information on the state capital plan, please visit backtoworkillinois.com.
The Back to Work Outfit (which is funded by the coin machine operators and the gambling equipment manufacturers) tries to make it appear that the capital bill will fail without video gambling.
However, Kelly Kraft, director of communications for the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, said the lengthy time to set up the video gambling had not affected the state’s ability to sell the bonds for the capital bill. For the 2010 fiscal year, the state borrowed $4.15 billion for capital projects and expects to borrow the same amount for the 2011 fiscal year, Kraft said. “Video gambling is smallest part of the capital program,” Kraft said.