The likelihood of a Chicago casino curing the state’s financial woes edged a little further from reality Wednesday after Mayor Daley’s administration asked for a sizable cut of casino revenues and considerable control.
Daley officials said the city “strongly supports” building a land-based casino in Chicago, but they hinged support on specific demands, including the creation of a separate city-led authority to oversee the project.
The city also wants to substantially lower the upfront casino operator’s license from the proposed $800 million, receive 70 percent of net casino revenues and make the operator’s license longer than four years, as currently proposed.
The requirements surfaced Wednesday at a six-hour public hearing held in Chicago by the Illinois House Gaming Committee. House lawmakers are under increasing pressure to authorize a casino for Chicago to overcome an impasse in finding funding sources for schools, mass transit and construction projects.
While the committee’s chairman still expressed optimism that a casino deal could be negotiated, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) said the city’s demands did little to move things toward that end.
The Senate already has approved a gambling bill that would add a Chicago casino and two riverboat casinos elsewhere in the state, as well as expand gaming positions at existing boats. Now, House members are trying to assemble legislation that would pass their chamber amid concerns from gambling critics, the horse-racing industry and skeptical lawmakers.
Gambling critics derided the city’s demands. They said a city with a history of corruption has no business running a casino or overseeing the construction of one.
