Gambling opponents may have lost the battle to keep riverboat casinos out of Illinois, but they aren’t letting up on their campaign to prevent future gambling enterprises from taking root in the state.
The campaign is being fueled by a number of concerns: that horse-racing giant Richard Duchossois is looking to add new gambling venues at his Arlington International Racecourse; that a number of business investors and politicians are lobbying for an expansion of the existing riverboat legislation; and that American Indian tribes in Wisconsin continue to eye the northwest suburbs as a site for land-based casinos.
William Cull, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Arlington Heights, says he fears such plans might be cemented through back-room deals between business investors and politicians. So he has invited ministers from throughout the northwest suburbs, including Elgin, Mt. Prospect, Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg, to a meeting at his church Wednesday night to spearhead an anti-gambling referendum campaign.
Led by the Methodist Church of Illinois, which is trying to get referendum proposals on ballots in dozens of municipalities throughout the state, Cull insists that residents should have a say in all future gambling proposals.
“The citizenry should have the opportunity to help make decisions about what’s going to happen in their community,” Cull said. “This ought not be decided by people in back rooms.”
Of primary concern to Cull are reports that Duchossois-a longtime Republican campaign contributor-wants to float a riverboat casino in a pond in the middle of the 325-acre Arlington Heights racetrack.
Opponents fear the move would be an attempt by Duchossois to recover from a failed bid to get a riverboat casino and off-track betting parlor in West Dundee.
Earlier this year, Duchossois joined forces with Mirage Resorts Inc. in Las Vegas, in an unsuccessful bid for the state’s last riverboat casino license. The partnership wanted to build a $92 million riverboat casino, entertainment complex and off-track betting parlor on the Fox River.
A competing riverboat proposal for Elgin, backed by Hyatt Development Corp., won the state’s 10th and final license.
Even though Duchossois said he has ideas for new gambling ventures as a way to preserve horse racing at Arlington, he said Tuesday the recent “boat in the moat” rumors are wrong.
“That’s ridiculous,” Duchossois said. “It would destroy my track. I’m trying to save my track.
“I spent a major amount of money to build a grandstand and I went out of my way to beautify the infield. Why in the devil would I obstruct all of that by putting a riverboat in a pond in the middle of it all?”
Meanwhile, the Lac du Flambeau band of the Chippewa Indians, which owns an electronics company on 5 acres in Elgin, has been considering the site for a land-based casino.
The tribe is carrying $11 million in government-guaranteed debt on the company, Simpson Electric Co., 853 Dundee Ave., said recently ousted tribal council member Elmer Graveen.
Last month, tribal council members met with representatives of Binions Horseshoe Club, a Las Vegas casino company, to talk about a bailout, said Graveen, who was among the council members that attended.
Binions offered to bail the tribe out of debt in Elgin if the tribe could get a casino on the land under the Federal Gaming Act of 1988, according to Graveen. Binions would be the tribe’s partner in the Elgin casino.
The proposal would have to overcome many obstacles before becoming reality.
The Federal Gaming Act permits American Indians to operate gambling enterprises free from taxation and state regulation provided that some form of gambling is legal in their state. But they can do so only after they enter into an agreement with the governor of the state.
Once such an agreement is struck, the U.S. Department of Interior would consider a tribe’s plan to place the land in trust for the Indian gaming operation.
Gov. Jim Edgar refuses to allow land-based casinos in Illinois.
The idea has caused in-fighting within the tribe, and efforts to overthrow tribal chief Tom Maulson are now underway, Graveen said.
Binions representatives and Maulson refused to discuss the plan.
A similar plan by another band of the Chippewa, the St. Croix, to open up a casino in Rolling Meadows is dying.
The plan caused controversy in Rolling Meadows when the City Council agreed to the tribe’s plan a year ago.
The proposal is languishing in the federal bureaucracy as the tribe and village officials wait for a changed political climate in Springfield.
Will the governor ever change his mind and allow more riverboats or land-based casinos or an expansion of Arlington International Racecourse?
Mike Lawrence, a spokesman for Edgar, said no.
But gambling opponents aren’t taking any chances.
They hope to get referendum proposals on the March ballot asking: “Should citizens be given the right to vote by municipal referendum prior to the introduction or expansion of gambling within this municipality, including riverboats, betting parlors, video terminals and slot machines?”
Cull and those working with him hope to get petitions signed by 10 percent of the voters in each community by December so that the referendum question can appear on March ballots.
