Illinois house votes to END riverboat Gambling

I say good riddance, had I never played craps or blackjack I can't imagine how much more money I would have..

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:State w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Illinois</st1lace></st1:State> House votes to end riverboat gambling<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>



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This story ran on nwitimes.com on Thursday, October 27, 2005 3:45 PM CDT<o></o>

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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--END OAS AD-->SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The Illinois House voted Thursday to close the state's riverboat casinos, 15 years after they were allowed to open their doors.

The measure now goes to the state Senate, where it is likely to be blocked. Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, calls the idea irresponsible.<o></o>

"The Senate is a very responsible body. It doesn't do irresponsible things," Jones said. "I can't see a member voting to take money away from their schoolchildren."

But House Speaker Michael Madigan issued a statement saying the existing casino system has produced huge amounts of money for a few people. He says it should be overhauled so the profits are shared more widely.

"I think we should go back to the drawing board and start over," Madigan said.

The bill to end riverboat gambling passed 67-42, with seven people voting present.

Its sponsor, Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, said the casinos encourage gambling addiction, lead to crime and take money away from the people who can least afford to lose it.

"These facilities have preyed off the very facilities they were supposed to help," he said. "Let's take this scourge out of our communities."

But opponents say the casinos have helped revitalize communities and have produced much-needed money for education. They argue it would be unfair to yank that away now.

Riverboat gambling was approved in 1990. It was envisioned as a small tourist attraction for crumbling river towns, but it turned into big business.

The bill is HB1920. On the Net: http://www.ilga.gov<o></o>

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Precedent has been set. Gambling is a part of life in Illinois now, and it is here to stay. There is no way the Senate goes through with this idea.

No way that passes. I'll put money on it!

Just was watching the news here in Chicago..They said it will be Vetoed in the senate..........G.

I hope it goes the way of the dodo bird, like me and my biddy said we would so much better off overall if we had never visited the casino.

Anyone who has a hint about IL politics knows how this will go.

How many govs and state officials and Chicago pols have or soon will have prison records ????

What a joke, these fools just want more money. They went out and whined about how the state wasn't getting enough money. When the tax rate is twice that of any other state and you still insist on limiting the number of positions, you get what you deserve buttwipes. Talk about an unholy alliance, half those voted cause they hate gambling and half of those voted cause they want more gambling money. RIDICULOUS. Gaming companies are finally going to get to the point where they won't be stupid enough to invest another cent there and you will have all these fools crying about the money they aren't collecting. Only in Illinois.

WildBill said:

What a joke, these fools just want more money. They went out and whined about how the state wasn't getting enough money. When the tax rate is twice that of any other state and you still insist on limiting the number of positions, you get what you deserve buttwipes. Talk about an unholy alliance, half those voted cause they hate gambling and half of those voted cause they want more gambling money. RIDICULOUS. Gaming companies are finally going to get to the point where they won't be stupid enough to invest another cent there and you will have all these fools crying about the money they aren't collecting. Only in Illinois.

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Not to mention how much Illinois taxes gas. Truckers that come through will fill up in surrounding states so they won't have to fill up in Illinois. One local gas station owner who happens to only have 4 pumps is paying an extra 8000 a month right now to the state. That's just one little dude. Think about how much revenue these buttmunches are getting from the rest of the state. Scam artists.

If this passes, IOWA is laughing their asses off at Illinois, much like they are doing to Nebraska currently.

If Iowa got it's head together, it could be the Vegas of the midwest. But the lawmakers want to keep Iowa's image as corn-fed, lilly-white people. Now the state does have nearly 20 casinos, including state and indian controlled, and four more state-run casinos on the way, but if the state really wants to be fair, it would allow casinos throughout Iowa. When I was a news director at a town in west-central Iowa, the complaint was the state doesn't have enough money. Yet, the casinos continued to bring in huge amounts of cash, with over 20-percent going to the state. In essance, my advice to Iowa, is go all-in. Especially if Illinois repeals riverboat gambling, which they will not.

hawkeye171 said:

If Iowa got it's head together, it could be the Vegas of the midwest. But the lawmakers want to keep Iowa's image as corn-fed, lilly-white people. Now the state does have nearly 20 casinos, including state and indian controlled, and four more state-run casinos on the way, but if the state really wants to be fair, it would allow casinos throughout Iowa. When I was a news director at a town in west-central Iowa, the complaint was the state doesn't have enough money. Yet, the casinos continued to bring in huge amounts of cash, with over 20-percent going to the state. In essance, my advice to Iowa, is go all-in. Especially if Illinois repeals riverboat gambling, which they will not.

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Super post HAWK!

After the four new casinos come into Iowa the market will essentially be beyond saturation. The casinos will be privately run as all of them are, not state owned. The reason why they don't go anywhere else is because the local counties essentially voted not to have them. Iowa has been extremely open about casinos, with the only requirement being they have to either be on some form of water or at a racetrack, so not quite land-based yet. Still with that many casinos for a modestly populated state, you have to admit its not like there is some huge unmet demand for casinos. Illinois does have lots of unmet demand, but only because the size of the casinos is kept small by law and the population they serve is far larger. The real winner in all the midwest for gaming has been Indiana, which reaped the benefit of Illinois extortionate tax rate for years and also continues to pile in money from Ohio, with the Lawrenceburg riverboat near Cincinnati which is one of the most profitable casinos to be found anywhere, especially considering they didn't have to spend billions to build it like the Vegas casinos or the Borgata.

Riverboats are an extremely lucrative business and the states already take a ton of money off the top of them. However no one will invest in them if the host state does the crap Illinois does each year. Then people complain what happened to the jobs and tax revenues, but they don't point the finger at the lawmakers as they should because no one ever learns how the industry really operates.