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Long Odds For Mayor's Casino Play May 11, 2003
If Mayor Richard M. Daley gets his way, Chicago would become the first U.S. city to own a casino. It’s a distinction that’s drawing more questions than accolades at the moment.
A decade after his last push to put a casino in Chicago, the mayor is giving every indication that he’s ready to try again. But this time, he wants the city to own the casino, in order to maximize proceeds for schools, parks, streets and other public purposes.
Absent from the one-paragraph Chicago casino bill introduced last week in the General Assembly was a plan for financing the hundreds of millions of dollars in city spending to build a casino. In addition, there’d be operational expenses and annual fees for a private-sector management firm to operate the casino.
“These places may be cash cows, but casino companies have already spent a fortune to put them in place,” says Eric Hausler, casino industry analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York. “The city would have the risk, and it’d have the debt from building it.”
But the mayor and others who support his idea contend that the profits that private-sector casinos earn for shareholders should instead go to cash-starved government services and public schools. Preliminary estimates place Chicago’s cash haul at $450 million a year; the state’s take from taxes would be at least $307 million.
Nevertheless, the potential for conflicts of interest would be enormous, according to experts. Many Democratic appointees to the Illinois Gaming Board have had close ties to the mayor and the city, causing some to wonder whether board members might hesitate to throw the book at a city-owned casino found guilty of violations.
And even if Gov. Rod Blagojevich ultimately decides to support Chicago casino legislation, the proposal faces a tough fight in the General Assembly. Suburban Republican legislators are unlikely to support a Chicago casino that would offer stiff competition for lucrative suburban casino boats.
Moreover, a casino downtown or on the lakefront is likely to encounter opposition from some Democrats unless additional casino licenses are issued for the South Side or south suburbs and Lake County.
Construction costs are expected to reach $300 million for a high-profile downtown or lakefront location, such as the old post office over Congress Parkway or McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center.
A city casino finance authority probably would be created to issue bonds for the project. Casino revenues would be pledged to pay off the bonds, which also might be backed by city property taxes to attract more favorable interest rates.
“If there is any deficiency in the gaming revenue, then the city would make up the difference,” says Joseph O’Keefe, Midwest senior analyst at New York-based credit rating agency Fitch Inc. “But Chicago would try to insulate themselves from any risk.”
Under the Canadian model for publicly owned casinos that the mayor appears to favor, a private management company would be hired to operate the casino. The management deals, which are widely used in Native American-owned casinos, are highly sought-after by gambling industry heavyweights.
Annual management fees are typically 6% to 7% of earnings, which would total nearly $50 million for a Chicago casino projected to rake in gross receipts of more than $800 million a year.
The management company would be responsible for hiring employees and
complying with state regulations. But critics of the proposal predict
the Illinois Gaming Board—which has earned a reputation for no-nonsense
enforcement of regulations—would face political pressure to treat
a Chicago casino differently from others.
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