The bill placed before the Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn was vetoed that would have allowed and included the expansion of land based casinos in the state. There was a plan to build casinos in the city of Chicago and four other major centers, which would create thousands of jobs and pay millions of dollars to the state in much needed taxes. Even the Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was behind the bill along with many supports in government.
This fight is far from over as even the Gov. Pat Quinn would like to see this happen but as he stated, "We're not going to have loopholes for mobsters in Illinois."
In his defense the state does have a long history of bad politicians as both his predecessors are in prison for corruption.
The major issue is loopholes in the proposed bill
So once lawmakers address the issues of loopholes and submit a new gambling expansion bill, Quinn says he just might approve it, if it meets his standards, "The bill that was on my desk was woefully deficient when it came to protecting integrity and honesty and regulation of gambling in our state." He is just looking for a bill with stronger ethical standards.
One of the major points he addressed was the political contributions issue. The legislation would have to ban contributions made from the gaming industry and he then urged legislators to work with him and address these issues.
Rep. Lou Lang claims he has submitted proposals that address Quinn’s concerns and all of them have been rebuffed leaving Lang to assume that Quinn simply doesn’t want to sign any gambling expansion bill no matter how it is worded. "The bottom line is he doesn't want to sign a gaming bill," Lang said. "If he had language to propose, he would have proposed it." Now they are just hoping there will be enough support in the house to over ride a veto from the Governor.
At this point in time it looks like there are enough supporters claiming they have enough support to pass the bill and make it a law with or without Gov. Quinn.
The bill also includes provisions for slot machines located at Horse Racing tracks and that was approved by the legislature. The majorities are just a few votes shy needed to override a veto and lawmakers will reconvene for a veto session this fall. Illinois politicians calculate that a gambling bill proposed would bring in as much as $1 billion a year and create as much as 100,000 jobs and bring a huge boost to tourism. Right now they estimate they are losing $20 million a month to the neighboring state of Indiana in gaming and tourism.
Once they address the issues of ethics in government and eliminate the defects currently in the plan, they just might have Gov. Quinn sign it. But if they don’t seem to meet his high standards then they could just get the votes needed to over ride his veto and set it into law for the Illinois Gambling Expansion bill to move forward.
