Along with Las Vegas and New Jersey, the state of Illinois is commonly recognized as a major gambling hub in the United States.
A question about providing Illinois residents with more gambling opportunities has been raised recently. The year 2015 will be, by all means, critical for the further development of the state gambling affairs.
Proponents of the expansion of the gambling industry are about to introduce a legislation to the local authorities who will be requested to give the green light to the establishment of five casinos. Apart from that, the legislation will propose slot machines to be available at Arlington International and other horse race tracks.
As a matter of fact, the bill in question will not the first one to be proposed. On the contrary, similar bills were introduced in the past but local state authorities kept rejecting them.
Now, things seem to be a bit different since the Governor is among the proponents of the expansion of the gambling sector. Terry Link, a state Senator, said that there is a high probability for the legislation to be introduced sooner than expected.
As mentioned above, there were proposals for expansion of the gambling segment but they failed in convincing the majority of Illinois officials of their effectiveness. Plus, the previous Governor was not among the authorities keen on taking imminent actions towards the expansion of the gambling sector.
However, the upcoming legislation is likely to pass due to the fact that the state has been going through a serious financial crisis and the establishment of five casinos as well as the availability of slot machines at the horse tracks would definitely be beneficial to state’s coffers. What is more, Terry Link said that this time, he believes “this is an opportunity to get things moving in the right direction.”
The future bill is likely to meet the opposition of Tom Swoik – the Executive Director of Illinois Casino Gaming Association. According to him, the establishment of new casinos is not going to be beneficial to the state as far as the revenues are concerned. Swoik claims that the abundant choice for casino venues does not mean higher percentage of people participating in gambling activities.
Actually, Swoik has a point since the Illinois gambling sector is not as thriving as it used to be. Despite the fact that revenues remain relatively decent, there was only one casino to report a revenue increase for 2014.
There is another side of the coin, though. Horse racing sector is has been going through serious financial issues for a long time so fans believe that the expansion of the gambling sector and the availability of slot machines at the race tracks in particular, would definitely remedy the situation.
