A gaming expansion bill passed that was before The Illinois Senate this week. Although the number of legislators who voted for the bill was not as impressive as it was thought to be, it is clear that the casino expansion bill in now closer to its realization if the current spirit is carried on.
At the moment, the only gambling facilities that are allowed in the state are pari-mutuel betting as well as riverboat gambling.
According to the State’s Senate Majority Leader Mr. Terry link, who authored the casino expansion bill, if the details of Bill 7 passes as they are, gaming licenses will be available for qualified individuals or companies that are willing to pay a $50 million fee that is payable at once each.
Additionally, upon setting up their respective casino business, each facility would be required to pay an extra 20% of its total revenue collection from slots and 16% each year from table games.
The link says that this is not a hard thing for any serious gaming investor who understands that it is a fresh market that has not been saturated by many gaming operators.
Speaking on how optimistic he is after what the Senate did this week, Link says that he is happy that as things are, there are hopes that if the six casinos built in Illinois; the state will have a surplus.
“I am particularly happy that we are on the right track as a state to finding a solution on multiple ways of financing our projects. The only regret we should have is that we did not do these things early. Nonetheless, we are, at the right pace,” Link said this week.
When a similar bill was introduced in the Senate last year, Link openly expressed his feeling on how he was displeased on the amount of money the state loses daily because of lack of proper gaming legislations. Mobile Gambling To Shoot To Over 164 Million Users By 2018.
“Every day, we lose gaming revenues because we lack appropriate legislations that govern the gaming industry. Now is the right time to everything legally possible that is within our reach to ensure that we keep gaming money in Illinois,” Terry said early last year.
According to SB 7, Chicago is likely to be a home of one of the six casinos the state will issues licenses. The most likely place for the new casino has already been pointed out to be a site where the former casino called Clock Tower Resort stood. e Gaming investors purchased The shuttered casino which may have ‘foreseen’ the results of the casino expansion bill before the Senate.
Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, is one of the happy people after news that the Senate passed the bill. He is eagerly waiting for the performance of the bill before the House for the final results.
