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Racial politics and crime cited as reasons against Illinois video poker
Published:  14 December, 2009

Illinois amusement operators are growing afraid of scaled down participation in legalized video poker.  Cook County, home of Chicago and America’s second largest county with 128 municipalities and five million-plus people, voted twice this fall to reject legalized, operator-run video poker. To date, more than two dozen municipalities across Illinois have voted to opt out.

If Chicago opts out, they fear the Video Gaming Act may crumble. The Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association (ICMOA) projects a multibillion-dollar VLT market with 40,000 networked gaming devices starting in late 2010. Dozens of amusement industry members rallied to lift the ban.

However, at least one African-American Cook County commissioner cites racial politics as key in creating the opposition. He stated that wealthy towns will opt out; minority towns will opt in and take advantage of the poor. Commissioner William Beavers charged that rally protesters were white, and any jobs created by legalized pokers would go to white-dominated construction companies.



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