Illinois wants to be Las Vegas but it'll end up like Atlantic City

www.illinoispolicy.org...

This gambling expansion will make Illinois the gambling capital of the Midwest, far surpassing neighboring states in total gambling positions. In total, SB 690 will increase Illinois’ total number of state-sponsored gambling positions to nearly 80,000 from 44,000, according to ProPublica Illinois.

This is desperation. What I find so hilarious is that they have already tried this on a smaller scale and it failed. So what do lawmakers do? They expand it! Have any of them even followed what is going on in Vegas? Most people don't want to gamble anymore, they go for the shows!
It will be interesting to see slot machines at O'hare & Midway, in every gas station.

We are seeing history unfold before our eyes, it is just happening faster than I thought. I still have family and a lot of friends in Illinois. I know exactly what is happening there. The vast majority of people are already stretched thin, add gambling to that mix and it's going to be a disaster.
The only way this could be successful is to draw in tourist to gamble. I don't really see that happening as most surrounding states have well established places. There will probably be novelty when it first starts, but that will end soon enough.

What I find the most ironic of all is that Illinois will ban online sports betting like Draftkings and Fanduel. I truly believe that those are the only fair ways to actually gamble and win. My husband and I are number crunchers by profession/hobby, we have dabbled in FD and Draftkings and have won first place more than once. I didn't even believe it was real, until the funds were in our account. If anyone ever had a doubt, it is a real. Although I have a feeling there is still some slight manipulation going on, there are still ways to win more than you lose. There is a very easy way to win, I think some people have started to figure it out. It is the exact way some people have figured out how to win the lottery. Just a hint, buying one ticket is not it.

Anyways, back to Illinois. I remember working for a very big well known company there. There were talks at the time of bringing a Casino nearby. Our company petitioned against it because it didn't want workers going there for lunch or after work or getting into financial trouble because of it. Our company had a lot of pull in the state (actually US & world). I saw things happen that you would not believe just because the CEO was inconvenienced. So the fact that this is happening now tells me a couple of things. The state is really really going down fast, they greased some palms or gave some of these CEOs a cut. Only time will tell.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I live in northeast Indiana.
I'm within a 150 miles of six casinos.
Within 100 miles if four casinos.

Fire keepers aka money keepers...
Harrahs...
Blue chip...
Four winds..
Hollywood...
Mgm....


Why exactly would I go to Illinois to lose my money? Bad plan..

There are 50 Native American casinos on the Pueblos and Rez within 100 mi.... culture killing progress but at least lifting the NA community out of poverty. I like to play holdem and Omaha tournaments during my down time from work.

The casinos have lightened the tax burden on citizens of NM and established a nice college fund for HS graduates, instituted gaming schools for job seekers, and rake in millions of dollars with support services, such as inhouse restaurants, bars, motels, concerts, and MMA and boxing sporting events, movie/TV locations, conventions etc... Many casino's have yuggee convention centers/auditoriums attached. Constant renovations and expansion of the NA casinos... All that, translates as jobs, jobs, jobs.

I haven't been keeping up too much with it, but I don't really have an issue with the casinos. I can envision some casino's downtown say around McCormick. Face it, the conventions and tourist coming to downtown Chicago are not the same ones going to northwest Indiana.

Given the pension hole, they need to go after sin taxes as much as possible.... legalize weed, all gambling, and prostitution. Tax it and dig out of the pension hole taking the stress off the homeowner's property tax bills.

a reply to: Bluntone22

It's not about you coming to Chicago - it's about all the Chicagoans who go to Indiana to gamble. Plus soaking all the tourists who come to Chicago anyway.

You can gamble almost everywhere these days. Atlantic City is a good comparison. It was successful because it was the only place on the East Coast with legal gambling. When other states allowed gambling, AC crashed & burned.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Pretty much every State around them has casinos, it's just keeping up with the competition. We've had them in Detroit for a long time, they fill a need that would be filled by someone else.

Epitaph for a nation in decline:

"We blew it, man." --Captain America

Personally I wanted online poker to be part of this but it's not. The video machines are already everywhere, I don't think this will bring in the money they're looking for.

While we're on about Illinois failures, new recreational marijuana law doesn't allow for people to grow their own. You can grow five plants only if you have a medical card. I bet 5-1 that Illinois will have the highest priced recreational marijuana in the country due to taxes.

They're taxing cigarettes an additional $1 per pack starting July 1. The state's cut for cigarettes is now more than twice as much as the tobacco company's or the retail stores, or anybody else between. If that isn't mafia level extortion I don't know what is.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Illinois is a state. Las Vegas is not. It's tough to make a comparison.

it's pretty much a last ditch attempt for the state to try to make money. what they see is not just money made from people gambling. but also things like the extra business for things like hotels and restaurants as well as other touristy things. which not only would mean in creased taxes from those. but also means more jobs. jobs which again would mean more taxes from wages. in short they see a tax bonanza, along with job creation. sadly it won't work. places like Atlantic City and Las Vegas made tons of money for years. the reason being that they were just about the only places where you could legally gamble. in other words if you wanted to gamble legally, you had to go to one of those places, or to another country. the problem is that there are legal casinos just about everywhere now between native Casinos, and so many areas making it legal. what they will end up with is just hurting the poorer people that live there.

remember the days when a trip to Las Vegas was cheap, even free in some cases? free booze. free shows. and we are talking about major stars performing in those "free" shows, not just unknowns. heck back then performing in Vegas was almost saying that you had made it to the top of the performing arts. cheap hotel rooms. even cheap flights. all done to bring people in so they could loose their money "at the tables"[i]. and it worked. at least it worked until so many places legalized it. now Vegas has become rather expensive because they are no longer able to make the money they once could. flights are no longer cheap as they once were. hotel rooms are expensive. tickets to shows are expensive. in fact just as Vegas was once a "cheap vacation" (providing of course you didn't loose too much at the tables). it is now a rather expensive vacation, before taking gambling losses into consideration. the problem is that there are only so many people that will let themselves loose big, who can afford to do so. and so why travel somewhere like Vegas (or Illinois), when you can easily stay at home and go to a casino that is close by as they already seem to be everywhere? gamblers that can afford to throw money away are a finite resource. one which is now spread thin. and at the same time Vegas has a history and tradition of opulence and glitz to keep it going. people still go because it is Vegas. something Illinois does not have to bring people in.

so what they will get is pretty much people from Illinois, and just a few people on vacation gambling there. people who would have gone there anyway without the casinos. most people will not loose a lot of money, since they can't afford it (ironically it will be those who can afford to loose the least, that will end up loosing the most). that means little to no real revenue increase for things like hotels and restaurants over what they have been getting. no new tourist spots will open to take advantage of an increase in tourism, because it won't cause an increase in tourism. the only real jobs that will be created will be those in the casinos themselves. which is not going to ne much in reality. on the other hand what is likely to happen is those who can afford to loose any money, will be the ones mainly playing the games, and thus loosing their money (just like with lotteries), trying to get ahead. which in turn will increase crime, and/or needed social programs to deal with the issues those casinos will create. especially social programs for drug/alcohol abuse and gambling addiction. it will hurt the poorest people, especially children, for no real gain. not to mention that a lot of that "casino revenue", will actually be from things like the welfare they pay out.

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: JAGStorm

Illinois is a state. Las Vegas is not. It's tough to make a comparison.

yes Las Vegas is a city, true. but it is a city in a state where gambling was legal. Vegas just happened to be the big gambling center. heck in Nevada almost every gas station, hotel and motel seems to have a room of slot machines and other gambling games. even the airport has slot machines (gotta get that last buck don't you know). the whole reason Vegas came to be was that gambling was legal in that state. and so certain disagreeable people decided to capitalize on that. people that had more than enough ill gotten gains to make Vegas what it was. if you need it spelled out, it was the [i]mobs (aka organized crime), including the powerful Chicago mobs, that created the Las Vegas as it is known for today. .

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

thanks for making me feel old.

true Vegas hasn't been cheap in years. but that doesn't change the fact that the cause was casinos popping up everywhere stealing their business. but i certainly remember people going to Vegas since it was so cheap, it was practically free. and so many people didn't mind throwing some money away at the tables. and of course for many, in the end they would loose more than they could really afford to. i even know many people who would go there at least once a year. now they all just go to the casinos closest to them. and in most cases instead of going to the casino for a weekend or a week, they just go for the day now. since they really don't have to travel far to get there.

a reply to: generik
It's already like that here in Illinois. There are machines in gas stations, grocery stores, laundry mats, restaurants, not to mention every single bar.. Most machines have a variety of games, many of the same ones a casino has. It's a lot like being off the strip in Vegas.

The glitz and glamour of Vegas is incomparable to anything here in Illinois. I think people who like Vegas are still going to Vegas.

a reply to: JAGStorm

What happens in Peoria, stays in Peoria.

originally posted by: generik

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: JAGStorm

Illinois is a state. Las Vegas is not. It's tough to make a comparison.

yes Las Vegas is a city, true. but it is a city in a state where gambling was legal. Vegas just happened to be the big gambling center. heck in Nevada almost every gas station, hotel and motel seems to have a room of slot machines and other gambling games. even the airport has slot machines (gotta get that last buck don't you know). the whole reason Vegas came to be was that gambling was legal in that state. and so certain disagreeable people decided to capitalize on that. people that had more than enough ill gotten gains to make Vegas what it was. if you need it spelled out, it was the mobs (aka organized crime), including the powerful Chicago mobs, that created the Las Vegas as it is known for today. .

The reason Nevada legalized gambling in the first place was so that they could squeeze money out of the men who were constructing the Hoover Dam. It was the Depression, and those guys were well-paid, and most of them were from out-of-state.

The problem with organized gambling is that it does not create wealth--it just shifts it around. Usually from lower income people to higher income. And any money spent gambling--and creating gambling jobs--just takes away from other spending, resulting in job losses in those sectors. And the big downside is increasing poverty, broken homes, and crime. So it's just more privatizing the gains, and pushing the losses off on the public to pay.

There is a good reason societies have made gambling illegal in the past. We will have to learn that lesson again.