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No end in sight

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* I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of the biggest mistakes the General Assembly has made in the past two years was to give the Gaming Board oversight of the video gaming law. This program should’ve gone to the Lottery, which already had a statewide network and a long list of approved vendors. The Gaming Board is intent upon reinventing the wheel, and it is obviously in over its head…

The biggest issue yet to be resolved is when video gambling will begin. Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe called it an “open-ended question” and said he doesn’t have an answer. He said his agency is understaffed and struggling to keep up with background checks and security screenings that must be done on hundreds of businesses seeking a piece of the new industry. They range from machine manufacturers to distributors to owners and repair workers.

Another major holdup is the need to hire a company to operate the centralized computer system that will oversee the thousands of gambling machines spread across the state. Bids are being reviewed, but Jaffe said major questions about such a system remain.

For instance, Jaffe said, it will be easy to tell if machines are being tampered with and if payouts are fair, but it will be nearly impossible to monitor who is using the machines, be they children or intoxicated adults.

That last sentence just blows my mind. The state doesn’t “directly monitor” who buys alcohol or cigarettes, either. Instead, police investigations and stings are used to weed out vendors who sell products to kids. And why should Jaffe be concerned if somebody who has had a few beers slips a dollar into a video poker machine? I mean, the machines are going to be in taverns, after all. Focus, man. Focus.

* It looks like another year…

The Illinois Gaming Board continues to review bidders to supply a statewide communications system that links video poker machines, an essential element before legal gambling can begin.

“We hope to get video gaming off the ground four to six months after the bid is awarded,” spokesman Gene O’Shea said Monday. “We’re still working on those bids.”

O’Shea said he couldn’t predict when the bid would be awarded.

They’ve been working on this for a year, after the Board abandoned its initial award to Scientific Games of New York. Back then, O’Shea said the system might be operating by July of 2011. Well, it’s now July of 2011 and there is no end in sight.

The Gaming Board hates it when I say this, but one could be excused for wondering whether Jaffe, et al are deliberately dragging their feet.

* Meanwhile, two Republican state Senators are heading for a primary match, and they are diametrically opposed to each other on a casino for Rockford…

“I think gambling expansion is not going to be a reliable source of revenue for any of the communities in our state,” [Sen. Christine Johnson] told me.

“Gambling can bring a lot of social ills. A lot of seniors on fixed incomes don’t have financial wherewithal to gamble,” she said. “I think we have adequate opportunities to gamble already.”

[Sen. Dave Syverson] said the issue comes down to a competition between Rockford and Beloit, not the merits of gambling.

“A Rockford casino will be taxed and the benefits will be used for economic development right here. It’s true you can’t build an economy on gaming, but if Beloit develops a massive casino, water park, conference center and hotel on the Illinois border, it will be devastating for northern Illinois,” Syverson said.

“We’ll still provide the gamblers, but we’ll get none of the taxes. That’s why I’m involved in this effort. I think most people get this,” Syverson said.

* It’s usually the case that when a reporter isn’t aware of a rule or a law, he or she then deems it as “obscure.” Motions to reconsider a vote are not commonly used, but they have been used forever, often for political reasons. Just ask Sen. Gary Forby about how Senate President Emil Jones used the motion to kill his ComEd proposal. The motions are clearly defined in both House and Senate rules and I’ve seen them used more times than I can count.

The motions are usually only effective when used by the majority party. If a Republican made such a motion, the majority could simply go to that order of business on the calendar and kill it. Even so, Mark Brown does have a point that Senate President John Cullerton probably ought not to get in the habit of using this motion, as he did this spring with both the ComEd bill and the gaming expansion bill…

…Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, is using an obscure parliamentary maneuver to keep both bills on hold in his chamber, in effect holding them hostage while he and others try to convince Quinn not to veto them.

Despite a Constitutional provision that gives the Legislature 30 days to present any bill to the governor after its passage, Cullerton says he could, in theory, hold both bills in this manner until the end of the legislative session in January 2013, when they would die without ever getting to the governor.

That strikes me as a bad way of doing business that fouls up the legislative process, and it ought to be nipped in the bud before it becomes a normal element in the Springfield give-and-take.

Cullerton tells me I’ve got it all wrong and that this is an unusual situation that calls for a rare use of an otherwise well-established parliamentary procedure — a motion to reconsider. Holding these bills is not just legal but will produce a better outcome for the public than if he were to rush the bills along to the governor, Cullerton says. Action could come this fall, he said.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 4:30 am

Comments

If you build it, they will not necessarily come. A Rockford casino could be a crappy place to gamble, and eat, and do all the other things people do at casinos, so Johnson’s got no reason to freak out. Additionally, money building a casino and such would stimulate Rockford in some ways, so Johnson will have to explain how she would make up the dollars that would be spent there. Saying no to everything isn’t governance or legislating.

Comment by Precinct Captain Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 7:35 am
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of the biggest mistakes the General Assembly has made in the past two years was to give the Gaming Board oversight of the video gaming law. This program should’ve gone to the Lottery, which already had a statewide network and a long list of approved vendors. The Gaming Board is intent upon reinventing the wheel, and it is obviously in over its head…

Rich, You are absolutely correct on this. The Lottery had the experience, systems and history of success. If they had the responsibility video gaming would have been up and running a year ago with millions of $ in the State coffers.

Comment by downstate hack Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 8:02 am
It may make the Gaming Board cringe but it’s almost impossible to see how they aren’t foot dragging on this.

Even if they were doing system planning and contracting with all deliberate speed, how can they not have provisionally approved at least some of the many distributor applications that have been approved?

If nothing else, some provisional licensing there would give tavern owners a little guidance on which of these video poker vultures that constantly pester you are actually checked out and approved.

All credit to the Gaming Board for cleaning up the 10th casino license fiasco and a decade of solid oversight, but the going on two year delay to launch the video poker industry looks like deliberate obstruction by inaction.

Also, I rarely venture south of I-80 but have heard many of the “grey market” video poker machines that disappeared after the Capitol Bill passed, have started to pop back up while people wait out the Gaming Board. Any truth to that?

Comment by Chicago Bars Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 8:27 am
I actually think it’s refreshing to see an Illinois regulator who is not in bed with the industry he’s supposed to be regulating.

Of course his warnings are falling on deaf ears and Illinois will have yet another mess on its hands down the road.

Comment by just sayin' Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 8:50 am
I asked the gaming commission about the data they would be gathering from the machines and they had no idea what I was talking about.

As for

For instance, Jaffe said, it will be easy to tell if machines are being tampered with and if payouts are fair, but it will be nearly impossible to monitor who is using the machines, be they children or intoxicated adults.

Well you could sort of solve these problems by requiring periodic video to be taken I guess. You could look for intoxication by playing patterns I suspect if you spent a lot of time doing research. But seriously dude, that sounds like a local law enforcement problem to some extent to me.

Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 8:57 am
Chicago Bars - there is much truth to your statement about video poker machines “popping up”. We frequent several local private clubs with “members amusement only” video poker machines. All of these places have increased the number of machines significantly to try to make as much $$ as possible before the gaming board gets their act together. One place had 5 machines a couple of years ago - then they went to 13. Then about a year ago they built on a whole new room for the machines and now they have 23 video poker machines. Of course they do pay out - and they are making a BUNDLE. Those 23 seats are always full (day & night), many times with people waiting to use them.

Comment by way south of I-80 Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 9:01 am
===The motions are usually only effective when used by the majority party. If a Republican made such a motion, the majority could simply go to that order of business on the calendar and kill it.===
I am not an expert, by any means, on Senate rules, and I might be wrong, but it looks like any member can ask for an immediate vote at any time if the reconsideration happens in the last 3 days of session. Why the GOP members who voted against the bill didn’t ask for this vote when they came back in June baffled me. If they had asked for a vote, Cullertons options would have been to call it again or table it. Once he tabled it the clock would have started ticking. Maybe they didnt want to for some reason or nobody on that side is reading the rulebook.

Comment by Been There Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 9:12 am
It always surprised me why former State Rep and Judge Jaffe was appointed to this position in the first place. Having appeared before him in court, he was prone to dozing off on the bench and would take months to issue decisions on relatively minor matters.

If he can’t make the tough decisions in a time sensitive manner, it’s time to find someone else.

Comment by Helm Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 9:52 am
===It always surprised me why former State Rep and Judge Jaffe was appointed to this position in the first place.===
If you notice he always talks about how potential new gaming will hurt existing casinos. He goes out of his way to always point that out. His old friends, the owners of the Elgin boat, like him in the position he is in. And they have always had some influence.

Comment by Casual Observer Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 10:01 am
I totally and 100% agree with Rich on the gaming board issue. Stupid, stupid, stupid move.

Comment by Not a Newcomer Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 11:29 am
I understand Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if Mr. Jaffe had been in charge we would still be waiting for the 1st cornerstone to be laid. It sounds like he is the wrong person for this job. I have never heard him say one positive thing about this endeavor. He has more than enough money to get this going. Maybe he is dragging his feet because his interests lie elsewhere. Illinois needs to get this moving sooner than later! This is going on two years, enough is enough.

Comment by Crabby645 Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 11:34 am
It’s unusual for an Executive branch appointees to publicly call the law they are paid to administer “a bunch of garbage”. It’s not unusual for them to complain they cannot do the job without more staff. Jaffe’s worn hats in all 3 branches; it now seems he wants to wear all 3 at once. He’s behaving like a columnist.

Comment by Rudy Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 11:35 am
“It’s usually the case that when a reporter isn’t aware of a rule or a law, he or she then deems it as “obscure.” ”

It has always seemed to me that reporters also tend to term laws or rules “obscure” when they are trying to plant a suspicion in the reader’s mind that said law or rule is unseemly, shady, or unethical.

Comment by jerry 101 Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 12:12 pm
Please, don’t anyone tell Mr. Jaffe that they allow alcoholic beverages in casinos –he won’t be able to sleep at night.

Hey, I have an idea — let’s put breathalyzers on all of the slot machines in Illinois, so we can make sure that they are used only by people who are sober. (And retrofitting the machines will create jobs, jobs, jobs!)

Comment by soccermom Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 1:07 pm
The current video gaming system needs oversight and regulation. Under the Video Gaming Act, the current unlicensed, “gray game” system will be eliminated. The VGA requires all operators, manufacturers, distributors and handlers to be licensed by the Illinois Gaming Board, cleaning up the current system and creating a new system supervised by the state. The VGA legitimizes the industry while spurring the Illinois economy. To learn more about the video gaming act and its impact, please visit www.BacktoWorkIllinois.com

Comment by Back to Work Illinois Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 4:19 pm
Jaffe’s heart certainly doesn’t seem to be in the project.

If the state is going to get some real money from those machines, it’s time for Quinn to make him move on and put on someone with enthusiasm for the task.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 12, 11 @ 6:25 pm