City Council Folds Effort To Legalize Video Gambling In Evanston

EVANSTON, IL — The Evanston City Council rejected a proposal to legalize video gambling terminals.

Councilmembers voted 5-2 against an ordinance that would have cleared the way for nine businesses to each have up to three video gambling machines.

Alds. Devon Reid, 8th Ward, and Juan Geracaris, 9th Ward, were the lone votes in favor at the May 28 meeting.

Alds. Clare Kelly, 1st Ward; Krissie Harris, 2nd Ward; Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward; Jonathan Nieuwsma, 4th Ward; and Bobby Burns, 5th Ward, voted against.

Alds. Tom Suffredin, 6th Ward, and Eleanor Revelle, 7th Ward, were absent.

Reid first made the proposal for an Evanston video gambling ordinance last year. Last month it narrowly passed through the Human Services Committee.

“I’m aware that these gaming terminals are designed in a way that is meant to be addictive,” Reid said Monday. “So is the soda that we drink. So is the social media that we engage in. So is a whole host of things.”

The 8th Ward alderperson said legalizing gambling terminals accepts the reality of the world as it is, with various forms of gambling legalized statewide and widely available on mobile devices.

“I think this is an opportunity for us to to accept that this is what folks are going to do, to regulate it in a way that makes sense for our businesses, for the city,” he said. “Folks are going to engage in this video gaming on their phones or from their desktops or, you know, out in other communities regardless and this doesn’t add to it. I think this creates just an avenue for folks to do it in a more social setting.”

According to city staff, people spent about $32.6 billion on the state’s approximately 45,000 video gambling terminals last week.

Local governments get 5 percent of that revenue and the state gets less than a third of it. Nearly two thirds of the money spent on gambling goes to the terminal operators and the venue that leases them.

Wynne said she had been willing to entertain the possibility of backing the legalization measure but was swayed against it by testimony at the May 6 committee hearing.

“We now know that video gaming is one of the most addictive forms of gambling,” Wynne said.

Many residents are opposed to the move, Wynne said, which would take a million dollars out of the pocket of community members for relatively small benefits to local businesses.

“This is, to me, an unnecessary harm that we’re bringing into our community,” she siad. “And although it it may be on our phones and it may be in other places it doesn’t mean that it needs to have the imprimatur of the city.”