News

Opponents ramp up for gambling-expansion hearing

Posted October 16, 2007 11:00 pm

Mike Ramsey

Critics of a proposed gambling expansion sounded the alarm Tuesday as an Illinois House committee prepared to hear testimony today (Wednesday) on legislation that would grant Chicago a government-owned casino.

The Chicago Crime Commission, the Better Government Association and other opponents of the plan warned that Chicago city government cannot be entrusted with a casino because it has a recent history of hiring fraud, police misconduct and other corruption scandals.

Crime commission president James Wagner, a former FBI agent, said another risk is that organized crime could possibly infiltrate a Chicago gambling scene.

"It's like an 800-pound gorilla in the room," Wagner said during a news conference at the Union League Club. He cited the recent "Family Secrets" mob trial, which lifted the veil from The Outfit's criminal operations.

BGA executive director Jay Stewart said gambling legislation pending in Springfield makes it impossible to revoke a Chicago license, even if wrongdoing occurred. Currently, the Illinois Gaming Board regulates the state's casinos, which are privately owned and operated.

"Why should the city of the Chicago be granted that which no private operator is granted?" Stewart said. "If you're a private operator and you cross the line and it's serious enough, you lose your license."

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has long sought the legislature's approval for a publicly owned casino that would funnel most profits to cash-strapped government coffers; the land-based operation would be privately managed and subject to oversight, the mayor has said.

The Illinois Senate last month approved a capital-construction program that relies on a Chicago casino, two additional casinos at undetermined locations and extra positions at existing riverboat casinos. The House Gaming Committee is expected to air the plan during today's hearing at the James R. Thompson Center, though negotiations among legislative leaders likely will drive the ultimate details. The hearing on HB2035 begins at 10 a.m.

Chicago Crime Commission representatives, who urge lawmakers to find other revenue sources besides gambling expansion, are among the parties planning to offer their views. Daley on Tuesday said a representative of his administration would attend. Gaming Board officials also would be on hand to answer questions but not take a position on the bill, the panel's spokesman, Gene O'Shea, said.

"We routinely never take any position on legislation because basically we're the regulators," he said.

The Gaming Board's former administrator, Jeannette Tamayo, now the Crime Commission's general counsel, warned that the Chicago casino envisioned in HB2035 "would be impossible to regulate under the current staffing and structure" of the state agency. O'Shea said several staff members have been added since Tamayo's departure, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who supports the casino expansion, indicated there would be enough resources.

"Any expansion of gaming in Illinois would be accompanied by an expansion of regulatory and investigative resources," Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said in an e-mail. "That's been the position of everyone involved in these discussions."

Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office has not been invited to today's hearing and typically does not get involved in gambling legislation, a Madigan spokeswoman said.

Madigan's father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, has expressed conditional support for a Chicago casino, through a spokesman. The elder Madigan, however, has signaled that the scope of the entire gambling-expansion proposal may be too big.

The Chicago Crime Commission is an anti-crime civic group that dates back to 1919. Other groups that spoke out against the Chicago casino plan Tuesday were the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and the Task Force to Oppose Gambling in Chicago.

Mike Ramsey can be reached at (312) 857-2323 or ghns-ramsey@sbcglobal.net.

Article Categories
News