Cities, county to discuss video gaming
URBANA – The Champaign and Urbana city councils along with the Champaign County Board will hold a joint study session Thursday evening to examine the issue of legalized video gaming.
The meeting will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the auditorium of the University of Illinois' Beckman Center, 405 N. Mathews Ave., U.
Under Illinois' new video gambling law, counties and municipalities can share in the proceeds from a state tax on video poker and other similar machines. But the communities also can choose to opt out of permitting the machines in bars, truck stops and fraternal clubs. About two dozen Illinois counties and municipalities have already chosen to do so, including Naperville, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Villa Park and Wheaton, plus the unincorporated areas of Cook, Lake and DuPage counties.
Although state lawmakers approved legalized video gambling earlier this year – to help pay for a $31 billion statewide construction program – the Illinois Gaming Board says it probably won't be a reality until late 2010.
Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing said she will serve as moderator of the study session. There will be at least five panelists providing information or opinions on the issue, she said.
Prussing's chief of staff, Mike Monson, will present information from the gaming board. No representatives of the agency were available to attend the study session, she said.
Also on the panel will be opponents John Kindt, a professor of business and legal policy at the University of Illinois who is a frequent witness against gambling, and Anita Bedell of Springfield, executive director of Illinois Church Action on Alcohol & Addiction Problems.
Another opponent scheduled to testify is Bruce Brown, manager of American Legion Post 71 in Urbana, who said state-sanctioned video gaming will damage his business.
"You can call any club, it'll put us all out of business," said Brown, whose post operates 13 machines that bring in about $12,000 a month. "We don't make money on our beer. We make money on our pull tabs, which we get legal from the state, and our video poker machines. We have to have some kind of draw or we're out of business."
In addition to helping operate the Legion hall, Brown said, the video gaming proceeds support troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It doesn't bother me that they put all their money in these," he said. "At least it goes to something good. We sent $10,000 for the troops over there."
Scheduled to speak in favor of the state-sanctioned legalized gambling is Eric Meyer, who owns Kam's and Pia's, both in Champaign.
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