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When riverboat casinos first opened in Illinois in the early 1990s, the state’s most powerful politicians were conspicuous by their absence. The lure of government money flowing from gamblers had proved too much to resist, but no politician wanted to be photographed dropping coins into a slot machine.
There were no speeches in front of the blackjack tables. When the big-time pols did show up, they cut a ribbon and bolted. No time even to hit the buffet. Too risky, given the public ambivalence about turning casinos into something people found in their hometowns.
Contrast that with what happened in downstate Illinois on Aug. 25 when Gov. J.B. Pritzker heralded the arrival of the new Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort in the Carterville area in southern Illinois.
Not only did the governor speechify at the opening of the state’s 14th casino — a bigger number than many people realize — but he did so at the elbow of his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton. This was a sufficiently important event for both of them to show up, even though casinos (some in temporary facilities) have been coming hard and fast in the Land of Lincoln.
The recent ribbon-cutting follows the openings of the Hard Rock Casino in November 2021 in Rockford and the American Place Casino in February 2022 in Waukegan, as well as the Golden Nugget in June in Danville.
Chicago, of course, is up next, with a temporary casino slated to open — possibly in the next two weeks — in the Medinah Temple in Chicago’s River North neighborhood and a massive permanent operation to follow in a couple of years on the site of the Tribune’s Freedom Center printing plant.
You can expect heaps of media coverage and columnizing on the merits of Chicago’s first casino, especially since it needs to establish itself as nice, safe and crime-free. The Bally’s casino, eventually, will be the state’s largest such operation, but it will hardly be the newest for long. The 70,000-square-foot Wind Creek Chicago Southland casino is purportedly coming in early 2025 to East Hazel Crest with, the casino currently says, 1,350 slot machines, 56 table games, entertainment, dining and a 252-room hotel.
“Building winning moments” is Wind Creek’s slogan.
Yeah, right. Building plenty of losing moments, too.
“Hospitality, jobs, economic development — that is what today’s announcement represents,” a cheerful Pritzker said in Carterville, with the slots as his backdrop.
The new downstate casino also represents big money for the state. Each casino is required to contribute one-time fees to the Pritzker administration’s Rebuild Illinois fund within 30 days of opening. For Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort, that sum reportedly amounts to a hefty $25.3 million in upfront cash.
We’ve no problem with legal gambling, a fun leisure activity for people who can afford to partake and can manage to do so in moderation. But that upfront money has to be clawed back from somewhere, and in the case of the Carterville casino, it will come in part from the people of that community, where the median income for a household in the city at the last census report was $36,969 and the median income for a family was $44,722.
In Carterville, according to the 2020 census, some 15% of the population currently find themselves living below the poverty line. That means plenty of people living right by this casino who have very little disposable income.
There are jobs and economic development coming, for sure, and there is no doubt the new flow of revenue for the state, but there also will be Illinoisans who are losers.
Our advice is to the good people of Carterville, and elsewhere in downstate Illinois, is to note that this casino is projected to be so lucrative for its investors that they were willing to make an upfront payment of $25.3 million just to snag the license. And that’s before the ongoing tax that the owners have to pay on what casinos euphemistically call the “hold.”
We’ve already complained about how the original riverboats, approved in the 1990s with a promise to revitalize struggling downtowns in cities such as Aurora and Joliet, have abandoned that promise without any meaningful pushback. And we’re still wondering what pending exits from those downtown areas (yet more new casinos!) will do to those two urban cores.
That’s certainly something Pritzker and the state should be thinking about, along with jobs and revenue. These are developments that extract their pound of flesh.
Regular Illinoisans might want to consider that when the state comes up with a massively expanded revenue stream like that from casinos, one way to avoid contributing is simply to stay away and find something better to do with your money. That way, you get the benefit of the casino’s hefty new contribution to the state coffers without actually having to pay anything yourself. Illinois does not have to be rebuilt on your back.
Effectively, staying out of an Illinois casino can be just as a good as a tax cut.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
