{"id":4330,"date":"2021-12-11T18:50:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T00:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/?p=4330"},"modified":"2021-12-11T18:50:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T00:50:56","slug":"stadiums-casinos-and-riverboats-illinois-and-chicago-hedging-their-bets-on-the-future-of-gambling-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/?p=4330","title":{"rendered":"Stadiums, Casinos, and Riverboats: Illinois and Chicago Hedging Their Bets on the Future of Gambling Regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"
Zachary Mauer\nSenior Editor\nLoyola University Chicago School of Law, JD\/MPP 2022<\/em><\/span><\/pre>\n
Illinois has historically been at the forefront of gambling regulations in the United States.\u00a0 Chicago, on the other hand, has resisted sanctioning formalized gambling locations until recently.\u00a0 Following the passage of the 2019 Gaming Expansion Law, Illinois expanded gambling across the state and Chicago is planning to open its first casino by 2025.\u00a0 Chicago is also concurrently debating an ordinance that would allow sports gambling within the city\u2019s stadiums and arenas.<\/p>\n
History of gambling in Illinois<\/strong><\/p>\n
The first type of gambling<\/a> that was legal in Illinois was betting on horse races.\u00a0 The legalization of horse race betting in the 1920s helped kickstart an entire industry of tourism and revenue for the state.\u00a0 While the industry boomed throughout the 20th<\/sup> century, there are only two horse racing facilities left in Illinois<\/a> after the recent closure of the Arlington International Racecourse in September.\u00a0 Illinois was also the first state to create a state lottery in 1974.<\/p>\n
The Riverboat Gambling Act<\/a> was enacted in Illinois in 1990, making it legal to operate casinos on riverboats.\u00a0 This made Illinois the second state in the US to legalize riverboat gambling.\u00a0 Originally, riverboat casinos were required to be continually moving along a waterway when gambling took place, but the law changed in 1999 to allow the riverboats to be permanently docked.\u00a0 Today there are ten riverboat casinos operating in Illinois including four riverboat casinos within the Chicagoland area.<\/p>\n
Illinois expands gambling<\/strong><\/p>\n
In June 2019, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the Gaming Expansion Law<\/a> into law that considerably increased the ways that Illinoisans can gamble and the places where wagers can be placed.\u00a0 The law authorizes six new casinos to be built throughout the state, with one of them being built in Waukegan, one potentially located in one of six approved townships in Cook County, and one located within the City of Chicago.\u00a0 This would bring the total number of casinos in the state to 16.<\/p>\n
The Gaming Expansion Law<\/a> also provides a lifeline for those struggling horse racetracks.\u00a0 The act allows horse racetracks to operate slot machines and table games \u2014 earning them the aptly named title “Racinos.”\u00a0 Further, the Gaming Expansion Law creates Illinois’ first sports gambling regulations.<\/p>\n
A casino is coming to Chicago<\/strong><\/p>\n
Besides the riverboat casinos just outside the city limits, Chicago does not have any formalized gambling locations within the city.\u00a0 In an effort to take advantage of an untapped revenue source, Chicago is forging ahead to build the first casino<\/a> within the city limits by 2025.\u00a0 Once the casino is built, Chicago will become the largest city in the U.S. with a casino<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In November, city officials unveiled the five finalist proposals coming from three developers across five distinct sites across the city.\u00a0 The five casinos<\/a> are being proposed for the Chicago Tribune printing site, the old Michael Reese site, near McCormick Place, at the One Central development near Soldier Field, and in \u201cThe 78\u201d megadevelopment along the south branch of the Chicago River.<\/p>\n
City officials claim that construction of a casino<\/a> will create thousands of jobs and bring in millions in tax revenue to shore up the city\u2019s underfunded police and fire pension obligations. <\/strong>The bidders will formally present their plans to the public on December 16.\u00a0 A majority of the City Council<\/a> will have to approve the proposal before the winning bidder can receive a final operating license from the state\u2019s gaming regulator. A vote is expected in early 2022. Once a winner is announced and approved, the winning bidder can establish a temporary casino in the city for up to two years, with a twelve-month extension as it builds out the larger casino.<\/p>\n
Sports gambling in stadiums<\/strong><\/p>\n
An issue closely tied to the construction of a casino in Chicago is the future of sports gambling within the city\u2019s sports stadiums.\u00a0 Chicago aldermen have been weighing an ordinance<\/a> that would allow Wrigley Field, Guaranteed Rate Field, Soldier Field, Wintrust Arena, and the United Center to establish sportsbooks at or nearby their facilities.\u00a0 The biggest pushback to sports betting in stadiums has come from the developers of the casino proposals, in particular casino magnate and billionaire Neil Bluhm.\u00a0 Bluhm predicts<\/a> that stadium sports gambling would have a \u201cmaterial negative impact\u201d of about ten percent on the revenue of the Chicago casino and city tax revenues. \u00a0In response, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Samir Mayekar said<\/a> Mayor Lori Lightfoot believes multiple sportsbooks and a casino can \u201ccoexist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been paying very close attention to other municipalities where you have sports gaming establishments and casinos and we really haven\u2019t seen a significant cannibalization,\u201d Mayekar said<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday December 8, Ald. Emma Mitts (34th Ward), the chair of the License Committee, abruptly recessed<\/a> the committee hearing that was supposed to vote on the stadium sports gambling ordinance.\u00a0 Despite Mayor Lightfoot\u2019s support, some aldermen were concerned that the two percent tax on gross revenues from sports betting is too little, as it is projected<\/a> to raise only $400,000-$500,000 annually. \u201cIt seems like peanuts for an industry that is growing,\u201d said Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward).<\/p>\n
Other aldermen were sympathetic to Bluhm\u2019s argument. \u201cThere are too many unknowns,\u201d said 7th Ward Ald. Greg Mitchell, \u201cWe are moving entirely too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the potential revenue boon for the city, the social ills that come with gambling must not be ignored.\u00a0 Chicago\u2019s gradual approach to legalizing gambling will give the city time to develop and support gambling addiction clinics.\u00a0 The tax income received from gambling should be used to fund those efforts, as well as utilized to address the violence that continues to plague the city.\u00a0 It remains to be seen whether Chicago seizes the opportunity to support its most vulnerable citizens with the millions of anticipated revenues from gambling.<\/p>\n
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Illinois has historically been at the forefront of gambling regulations in the United States.\u00a0 Chicago, on the other hand, has resisted sanctioning formalized gambling locations until recently.\u00a0 Following the passage of the 2019 Gaming Expansion Law, Illinois expanded gambling across the state and Chicago is planning to open its first casino by 2025.\u00a0 Chicago is also concurrently debating an ordinance that would allow sports gambling within the city\u2019s stadiums and arenas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[384,385,928,929,1877],"class_list":["post-4330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-marketplace","tag-chicago-casino","tag-chicago-city-council","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-expansion-law","tag-sports-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}