The Chicago Tribune
Again in 1992, William Weidner, then president of Hollywood On line casino of Aurora Inc., got down to Springfield to kill then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s plans for a $2 billion mega-casino in downtown Chicago.
Weidner and different members of what was referred to as the “riverboat alliance” had been fearful that any such facility in Chicago would suck away enterprise from their nascent riverboat casinos in Aurora, Joliet, Elgin and different communities downstate. This was an act of self-interest. However that wasn’t the language Weidner used.
As an alternative, he argued that any such on line casino would run opposite to the intent of the Illinois legislature, which had justified its approval of playing in Illinois by arguing that these new riverboats would revive the downtowns of communities that had been demonstrably scuffling with de-industrialization and different financial shifts.
The riverboats had been purported to convey folks again to those downtowns and, Weidner argued, if Chicago was allowed to big-foot the entire enterprise, the revitalization of those former industrial cities would both be halted or diminished.
Weidner and his group prevailed.
All of that’s over now.
Illinois casinos, it appears, have change into like NFL franchises, supremely expert at lobbying and dangling the promise of income to cash-strapped cities however on their very own ever-changing phrases.
Was the Hollywood On line casino good for downtown Aurora? It is debatable. The charming riverwalk received completed and space landscaping improved. The Paramount Theatre got here again to life, however by itself deserves. And on a latest Sunday night time, these new eating places in downtown Aurora had been both closed or largely empty. The motion, it felt, had shifted elsewhere.
There is a cautionary story right here. Casinos change the principles as they chase more cash. Chicago has already seen an enchanting shift inside its personal new long-awaited on line casino. The town initially introduced it had chosen Bally’s because the entity with which it was doing enterprise and touted the probably fast approval by the Illinois Gaming Board, on account of Bally’s present presence within the business.
The gaming business has developed because the Nineties. Most notably, sports activities betting has exploded, and now casinos discover themselves topic to most of the similar pressures as workplace buildings downtown. They’ve to influence gamblers that they are sufficient of a great time to get them to return to a central facility quite than merely getting their playing fixes on their telephones.
Tens of millions of {dollars} have been made in Illinois on this business over the previous 20 years, and politicians haven’t all the time been forward of the curve. We’ll simply reiterate two abiding truths.
Outdoors of Las Vegas, at the very least, casinos are fickle entities that can’t revitalize cities on their very own.
And they’ll promise the moon after which ask for the celebs.