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Des Plaines Casino, boon or bane to Arlington?

Posted on January 15th, 2011

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Mayor Martin Moylan, made sure everybody who had a say in a gambling expansion measure in Des Plaines is well educated with the pros and cons of what they are about to do. He did everything he could probably do to block the casino project in Des Plaines. He made several trips to Washington to hobnob with lobbyists and legislators, preferring face to face interaction rather than just phoning, so the people concerned would see his dedication against the project. Moylan is backed by eight other mayors of different towns in illinois.

The subject of all this, is the gambling expansion package to be passed n the Capitol hills for Illinois. One amendment in the bill includes a provision for Des Plaines to receive a third of the admissions at Arlington Park so any losses incurred by the slots not being present there, would be covered. “If the bill was going to succeed, we needed some protections for our residents in the city. We have to do everything we can to keep and secure all the jobs at the construction site and also as the casino opens.” says Mayor Moylan. These thoughts ironically reflect, Mayor Mulder’s concerns, she said that her worries go to the viability of their tracks as it has been around since 1972. Arlington Park earns $1 million in revenues out of admissions, beverage, food and liquor sales and taxes. If the slots in track has been approved, revenues would balloon to $3.5 million. To this, Mulder says, “We haven’t really been pushing for slots. We’ve been trying to be supportive to retain our racetrack. It’s a long established industry in the state of Illinois. It obviously has been impacted since the first casinos opened.”

Experts and gaming officials believe that the Des Plaines casino has the potential to be another Grand Victoria Casino, the one in Elgin, as it is but a stone’s throw away from Chicago and O’hare International Airport. When Senate agreed to grant a 10th casino license in the area, it was hoping that the budget gaps suffered by the state would be alleviated, even a little. The issue was not resolved, and so the Senate, again, approved four more riverboat casinos and one live casino in a desperate move to fill the state’s treasury once again. $300 million was already given to the state just so the Des Plaines license will be granted. According to Jason Slowinski, acting village manager, the area has given up much needed revenue just to assure the project would be theirs because they anticipated that it is how everything is supposed to work. ” And now they (the state) are changing the rules,” he said.

Mulder was also upset that the budget cuts may just not be over this year. According to her, this might just be the fourth year in a row they suffered such cuts. Desperate measures have already been taken by the village. Raises are hard to come by and people have already been fired as an effect to facilities and programs shutting down. The value of nearby Sheraton Chicago Northwest Hotel could also be badly affected as developers would now think twice about buying the vacant facility. Thom Serafin, Arlington Park spokesperson said that legislators should also consider the 30,000 jobs that the horse racing industry would potentially lose. He added that his employers are committed to make Arlington stay at it is today, but obviously there are a lot of economic stress.

According to Tom Swoik, Executive Director of Illinois Casino Gaming Association, “Des Plaines will basically have a semi-circle of casinos 30 miles around it. This expansion is too large” Gaming officials also said that riverboat casino revenues have been in a decline, last month it was down to 6.3 percent. Senator Kotowski, an opposition for the expansion bill thinks that casinos and gambling have already been overused as a solution to the recession. He added that jobs from different fields should be created to solve budget problems. Experts believe that, even while casinos abound, there may not be enough money to fund it, thus signaling its death.