Casino news source: Rockford Register Star - http://www.rrstar.com
Rockford may win chance at casino
A Chicago legislator said he has been approached by people in ‘powerful positions.’
By Aaron Chambers
SPRINGFIELD — A gambling-expansion package under consideration at the Capitol may include a casino for Rockford. Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Chicago Democrat spearheading the plan, said a Rockford delegation recently asked him to include Rockford. He refused to say who had approached him.
“People from Rockford in powerful positions came to me the other day and said, ‘Hey, now we want in,’ when at first they were saying they didn’t,” he said Wednesday.
Hendon said the plan under consideration likely would include up to four casinos: one in Chicago, one in a south suburb of Chicago, one in Waukegan and another one either in Rockford or at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.
As lawmakers work toward the end of their spring session, some are eyeing gambling expansion as a means to generate state revenue. The session is set to end May 31, but lawmakers may need more time to reach a deal on a new state budget and other matters.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has long sought a casino for his city, and gambling expansion efforts here tend to revolve around his interests. He wants a Chicago casino to be owned by the city government and based on land.
The state’s nine existing casinos are boats — albeit boats permanently moored — and none is government-owned.
Hendon said he opposes government ownership in concept, but that other municipalities ought to have the option to own casinos if Chicago is going to own one.
Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey was in Las Vegas Wednesday and could not be reached for comment, but Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, said he has expressed a “lukewarm interest” in a casino.
Jefferson and Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, said it’s up to Morrissey and the City Council to decide whether Rockford should have a casino. The lawmakers indicated they will defer to the city’s decision.
They didn’t know who Hendon was referring to from Rockford.
“We can’t legislate a casino for Rockford if the city doesn’t want it,” Jefferson said. “So they’ve got to tell us whether they want to be part of that movement or not.”
Syverson added, “Rockford will have to make that decision sooner rather than later. We’re waiting to see what the city is interested in doing before we decide what we do.”
Rockford’s previous mayor, Doug Scott, teamed with Syverson and unsuccessfully sought a casino for Rockford. In his successful campaign to unseat Scott two years ago, Morrissey argued the city should not hang its economic future on a casino.
“What’s our big priority? A gambling casino?” Morrissey said at the time. “When we have an opportunity to work with our statewide representatives in that fashion, lobbying, we want to lead with the right impression of what our priorities are.”
Though lawmakers contemplate more gambling every spring as they seek to raise more state money to cover their spending priorities, they have repeatedly failed to reach an agreement on an expansion package.
Crafting a deal is a particularly complicated affair and past efforts have collapsed under their own weight.
Just as soon as Daley and others talk about their desire for additional casinos, the existing casinos call for the right to expand their capacity. Horse racing tracks want their cut in any deal, too. The tracks have said they should be able to offer slot machines to their patrons. |
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