Perhaps it was because Rep. Louis Lang’s ambitious efforts to float a gigantic expansion of gambling was launched during the 75th anniversary of the Titanic that the bill ended up getting an icy reception in the legislature.
Rather than calling his comprehensive bill for a House vote, Lang (D-Skokie) will announce Monday that he now hopes to work with Gov. Jim Edgar’s office in fashioning an overhaul of state gambling laws.
“I have no assurances from the governor’s office that we’re going to come to any agreement. I don’t even have any assurances we’re going to sit at the (negotiating) table,” Lang said.
“But I do believe, just as legislators are now talking about education funding in a different way than they have previously, I believe there are many legislators here who believe we should discuss these (gambling expansion) issues and lay them to rest,” he said.
Lang originally introduced legislation that would allow dockside gaming for existing riverboats, let boat owners operate in two locales and authorize 14 new gaming licenses. It also would bring land-based casino gambling to Chicago, suburban Cook County and Lake County and legalize video slot and poker machines at horse-racing tracks.
But the politically weighty nature of Lang’s proposal bogged it down in the General Assembly, and Lang said he did not want to force lawmakers to cast a vote if the legislation was destined to go nowhere.
Edgar, who has reacted cooly to any large-scale expansion of gambling, had said he doubted Lang’s bill would reach his desk. But if it did, he promised a veto.
“All of the regulatory matters that were in the legislation that I proposed were all issues that we really should deal with. We have sort of a hodge-podge of regulations regarding gambling,” Lang said.
“This constant year-after-year discussion (of gambling in the legislature) and then nothing happens one way or the other is not a good idea,” he said.
But Lang acknowledged it will be hard for lawmakers to act on gaming without first taking up the controversial issue of reforming education funding.
