Illinois racing entered what horse enthusiasts called the ”21st Century” Tuesday as the first off-track betting parlor in the state opened here in a converted restaurant and sporting goods store.
”I think this is great,” said Peoria resident Jack Boice, who bets as much as $300 a week during as many as five trips to Quad City Downs in East Moline. ”I think I`m going to save a lot in gas money if nothing else.”
Off-track betting, authorized by the legislature last December, became official at 7 p.m. Tuesday when a smiling Senate President Philip J. Rock put down $6 on Coupon Required and Ontario Road to win the first two races televised from Maywood Park.
”I never dreamed it would be anything like this,” said State Rep. E.J.
”Zeke” Giorgi (D., Rockford), Dean of the House and a longtime supporter of legalized gambling. ”I didn`t think we`d ever see this day in Illinois. I was there in Springfield when it wasn`t fashionable to talk about bingo.”
After a million-dollar facelift, the 500-seat Winner`s Circle became the first privately owned betting parlor in the country.
The posh carpeted and oak-floored parlor, with bars throughout and white- shirted betting and drink attendants, is a far cry from the rundown ”currency exchange” betting parlors which populated New York after off- track betting was introduced to the country there in 1971.
So, what a partnership of four of the Chicago-area racetracks plan to bring to Chicago next year, Downstate can already enjoy.
”They were ready for us,” said Billy Johnston, president of harness racing at Sportsman`s Park and co-owner of Maywood Park. ”We had the eager cooperation of the mayor of Peoria and the developer. Some towns just can`t get things done as quickly, or as well.”
Patrons of the parlor can dine on submarine sandwiches for $2.75, eat a bowl of Texas chili for $1.25 in the Club House, or order prime rib dinners in the Turf Club for $18.95, all within the easy vision of one of the 200 television sets which telecast live races.
Chicago-area thoroughbred races will be simulcast in the afternoons to the facility and harness racing will be shown in the evenings.
Tuesday night the private alcoves, seating two and with a private television, were filled as other eager patrons like Boice crowded the 17 betting windows.
Unlike the betting parlors in New York, Connecticut and Nevada, Illinois` OTB stations will be owned and operated by the racetracks themselves. The Winner`s Circle is a joint project of Maywood, Sportsman`s, Balmoral Park and Hawthorne Race Course.
The partnership`s second facility will open next month in Rockford, and Johnston hopes to have at least a temporary parlor ready to take bets in Chicago by next year.
”Bringing more people to betting will increase the purses and increase the quality of the horses,” he said. ”One thing makes the other thing better.”
Under the new state law, each of the seven tracks in the state can open two betting satellites each.
After a battle going back nearly 20 years, the legislature last year approved legalized off-track betting, partly as a concession to other track owners who had balked at the incentives being considered for multimillionaire Richard Duchossois to rebuild his fire-gutted Arlington Park Race Track.
William Bissett, executive director of the Illinois Racing Board, estimated that off-track betting could amount to $25 million to $80 million a year, again depending on attendances at parlors.
