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Economy May 18, 2003
queezed by a bad economy and sagging revenues, Mayor Richard Daley thinks the nation's third-largest city should get into the casino business.
Daley, who's on-again-off-again dalliance with gambling dates back nearly to his election in 1989, waited until after his election to a fifth term in February to declare that a downtown casino would help pay for public services and give the city a leg up on other major convention destinations.
But the mayor known for borrowing ideas from other cities and bringing them to Chicago - from plastic cows on the streets to gondolas on the Chicago River and wrought iron fences all over the city - wants to put his own twist on gambling.
He says he's only interested in a casino if Chicago can own it, under the theory the city would rake in more cash than the typical arrangement in which government collects tax revenue from private casino owners.
"We need the revenue," Daley said recently. "There's no alternative out there if you talk about new schools, if you talk about parks. You have people telling you they want this, they want that - how do you get it? You only get it by new revenue."
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and other fellow Democrats who control the Legislature are willing to consider it, perhaps as part of a larger expansion of gambling that supporters say could reduce Illinois' roughly $5 billion budget deficit.
Now the governor, who campaigned on a promise to not expand gambling, has indicated he will consider approving a huge rewrite of the state's gambling law that would put slot machines at horse tracks, allow more gambling at existing casinos and bring a city-owned casino to Chicago.
Blagojevich criticized a bill to legalize video poker in bars and restaurants, but stopped short of saying he would veto the measure if it passes the Legislature.
If lawmakers approve the plan, Chicago would become the largest city in the country with gambling. Daley has said he would have an outside company manage the casino but because the idea is so novel - no other U.S. city owns a casino - no one is sure how it would work or be regulated.
"Would the state threaten to shut down the city if there was cheating, the machines were rigged or executives were stealing money? It's strange," said gambling expert Bill Thompson, professor of public administration at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Despite the questions, supporters in the business community say a casino will attract tourists and conventioneers who will arrive in Chicago with fistfuls of cash. Supporters say those people will gamble and have enough money left over to spend in restaurants and stores.
"It will round us out as a major convention, tourism city," said Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. "It will only enhance the experience of Chicago."
Daley does not know where the casino would be located. An empty post office downtown, the expansive McCormick Place convention center and the riverfront site where the Chicago Sun-Times now sits have been discussed as possible locations. Before the gambling expansion discussion heated up, real estate magnate and casino owner Donald Trump proposed building an 86-story skyscraper on the Sun-Times site.
"It should be centrally located where small businesses and hotels would view it positively, restaurants and retail would play off of it," Roper said. "If it's stuck off somewhere where it's isolated, I think it won't have much of an impact."
State Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, chairman of a House gambling committee that passed a Chicago casino bill Friday, said it could attract conventions to the city and lure back residents who gamble in nearby states.
"Chicago is the economic engine that drives Illinois. No other city will bring the kind of tourism dollars and ripple effects from gambling that Chicago can," Lang said.
Under Lang's proposal, a 4,000-slot casino in Chicago would bring in up to $500 million a year in tax revenue for the city and about $380 million for the state. Even if tourists or conventioneers came to a Chicago casino, their money would be spent gambling instead of at a baseball game or restaurant, others say.
"Casinos cannibalize existing businesses. There's only so much money. If it's spent in a casino, it's not spent in other venues," said the Rev. Tom Grey, the Rockford-based executive director of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion.
Daley has toyed with the idea of having a Chicago casino for years. Shortly after he was first elected, Daley suggested a theme park casino as a way to generate revenue for Chicago. He gave up on the idea after then-Gov. Jim Edgar opposed it.
Last July, Daley said the city was not interested in pursuing the state's unused 10th license for a riverboat casino. But three months later, Daley embraced a city-owned, land-based casino as a cure for budget problems.
Then in February before the election, Daley changed his mind again and ruled out seeking a new gambling license for the city. But a sluggish economy produced a shortage of revenue in Chicago, causing layoffs and other belt-tightening at City Hall.
Now he's back on board with the idea - provided the city owns the casino so that it gets more than just the tax revenue. Daley maintains that, since gambling has become more prevalent and accepted in society, Chicago should benefit.
"You go to Indiana, you go to Wisconsin, you to Illinois, you go
to almost every state and there is gambling," he said. "And
now, in turn, how do we as a society, if we have allowed gambling, how
do we benefit from that? That is the issue."
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