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Odds may favor some expansion of gambling
By Deanna Bellandi
Associated Press
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CHICAGO -- The Rev. Phil Blackwell fears Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Illinois legislators will do something he considers immoral: expand gambling.

He might have reason to worry.

The idea has gone nowhere in recent years and Blagojevich --who last year supported gambling expansion to pay for statewide construction projects --abandoned the idea in this year’s proposed budget. But some lawmakers still consider it an option.

And one says it’s just a matter of time before they start talking about it seriously again.

“I don’t think it’s really gone away,” said Democratic Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie.

Just a few short months ago, everyone was talking about gambling expansion as the way to pay for new roads, bridges and schools --a plan they hoped would persuade downstate lawmakers to go along with a bailout for cash-strapped mass transit agencies in the Chicago area.

The bailout eventually passed, but gambling expansion --including the first casino for Chicago and thousands more slot machines at horse tracks and riverboats, including the Par-A-Dice in East Peoria --was doomed by feuding between Blagojevich and some lawmakers.

Complicating the issue is the indictment of a Blagojevich administration insider who once served as an adviser to the governor on gambling. Blagojevich’s former chief political fundraiser, Christopher Kelly, was charged in December and accused of trying to disguise gambling debts as private business expenses. He has pleaded not guilty, and has not been charged with any form of political corruption.

“I think people got a little, a little gun shy after that,” Republican House Leader Tom Cross said after the governor’s recent State of the State address.

The state already has nine operating riverboat casinos and a long-dormant 10th license that is finally emerging from years of legal limbo. The Illinois Gaming Board has said it wants to rebid that license this year.

One city that desperately wants it --and the estimated $20 million to $25 million in new tax revenue a casino would pump into the budget --is Waukegan, north of Chicago and close to Wisconsin, where Illinoisans go to gamble in casinos.

“We’re going to take every shot we have at it,” said Ray Vukovich, Waukegan’s director of governmental services.

But expanding gambling even further has been a sticky issue. And rather than pick up on the momentum the issue gained last year, Blagojevich distanced himself from the idea during his annual address to lawmakers. Instead, he proposed to partially lease the state lottery as a way to raise $7 billion of an $11 billion capital bill that would finance everything from roads and bridges to schools and public transportation.

“We’re open to legislators’ ideas, but at the conclusion of last year it seemed clear that we’d all be spinning our wheels to stay focused on gaming expansion to fund the capital plan,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said in an e-mail.

But a Blagojevich proposal last year to privatize the lottery also went nowhere, and Lang predicts it will flop again this year. He said gambling expansion is the only way to pay for a capital bill, and many officials consider gambling less painful than the alternatives, particularly a tax increase.

Blackwell, a Methodist minister and member of the Task Force to Oppose Gambling in Chicago, urges lawmakers to resist the lure of gambling, saying it’s unfair to give gamblers “the responsibility for paying for something that’s for the good of everybody.”

He prefers a small income tax increase so everyone would share in the cost rather than relying on gamblers --many of whom he says are low-income or retired --to foot the bill for state projects through their losses.

The governor, though, has adamantly and repeatedly said he would reject an income tax increase, and Lang called the notion of everyone shouldering the financial burden “a great theory.”

“But when government can’t do things the way the theories work out, then you have to look for other opportunities to accomplish your goals,” he said.

No matter what happens, Cross said the state must pass a much-needed capital bill, something that hasn’t happened during Blagojevich’s tenure, largely because of distrust over where the money would come from and how it would be spent.

Cross said he’s open to ideas about how to pay for a construction program.

“If we want to keep the economy from completely going soft in the state, I think a jobs bill, an infrastructure bill, is needed and sooner than later,” he said.

Take a look
**ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS, MARCH 1-2 - FILE** Gamblers at the Empress Casino try their luck on the slot machines in Joliet, Ill., in this May 14, 2003, file photo. Gambling expansion is always on the horizon in Illinois as a way to pay for statewide construction projects but a recent bailout plan that was passed was later doomed by feuding between Gov. Rod Blagojevich and some lawmakers. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
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Reader comments on this story - 3 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

im normal wrote on Mar 2, 2008 6:01 PM:

" What the State needs to do is build a land based casino in the center of the State, make it State ran,where 100% of the revenue would go into pay for new roads, bridges and schools,If there so much money to be made from a casino, why pay some one else to run. Why doesn't the State do it???? "

Dubya's Coke Dealer wrote on Mar 2, 2008 5:38 PM:

" What exactly is the problem with expanding gambling? Gambling is a 100% voluntary activity. Like the lottery, it is a tax on stupidity. If people are willing to throw away hard-earned money, why not let them do it in their own state instead of forcing the money to go to border states (Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin). Illinois is sitting on a gold mine here - we just need to start building the casinos and the money will come easily. "

im normal wrote on Mar 2, 2008 7:01 AM:

" Everyone knew Chicago would get it sooner or later...................Its CHICAGO "
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