Score another round for Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D): By threatening a drawn-out negotiation process that would put casino expansion hard up against election season — with lawmakers facing the terra incognita of redrawn districts — he may have forced everyone to meet him halfway. That’s the early read on a compromise deal emerging from the governor’s mansion, brokered between Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel — and hammered out on the noggins of emissaries of the horseracing and casino industries. The horsey set isn’t ready to back off its demand for racinos but it appears that legislators are preparing to dismount and horse-trade the racinos away in favor of casinos in Chicago, Rockford, Danville, and Cook and Lake counties. Emanuel and his constituents (who would own the Windy City’s casino) come out big winners, and so — to a lesser extent — would the other four areas.
For everyone else involved, getting this done will require eating an extra-large shit sandwich, then proclaiming it to have been a healthy and delicious meal. Quinn still accedes to more gaming expansion than he wanted, solons like state Rep. Lou Lang (D, right) will have to accept much less than they coveted. And if you currently own a casino in Illinois, there’s almost no way to spin this except with a lame, “It could have been worse.” Then you start budgeting for a time when your market share is smaller, margins are leaner, and you have to decide between retaining employees or increasing your promotional budget.
Horsemen cling to the arrogant notion that they’re entitled to public subsidy. Hawthorne Racecourse President Tim Carey couldn’t have demonstrated this better when he suggested that the horsey set “contract” with casinos for “impact fees” (such as the Lege might impose). In other words, run a shakedown, to the tune of “hundreds of millions of dollars.” Now, if I owned a casino and your racetrack president came to me, demanding a private contract whereby My Casino underwrites Your Racetrack, I’d tell him, “Go fuck yourself,” or some variation thereof. Existing casinos might be tractable to a state-levied horse subsidy — if it’s only paid by the five new casinos, that is. That’s one way of hobbling your competitors before they’ve left the starting gate.
If harness racing, say, is a long-term investment that cannot survive without mandatory underwriting from other industries, it’s time to put that nag out of its misery … especially at a time when Ryan is about to take the chainsaw to the state budget. And if horseracing can’t stand on its own four hooves with assistance from slots — as an industry lobbyist readily concedes — then why have it all?
Budgetary concerns are driving a policy shift across the river in Missouri. Gov. Jay Nixon (D) has proposed levying casinos an extra $1 per patron, hoping for a $50 million windfall. Its veterans homes swamped, the Show-Me State needs more money to run the ones it has and to build another — and even then there would be a huge waiting list. Although Nixon’s got the casinos backed into an untenable position, harping on their sense of patriotism, GOP members of the Legislature are split on whether or not to back him. Casinos’ best hope for escaping a tax increase is if solons force Nixon to cannibalize other parts of his budget to keep veterans fed.
If that happens, Nixon can hug it out with Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I), who’s just learned that casinos in Massachusetts will subtract $140 million from his state’s gambling revenues. That’s 47%. It’s also the most persuasive argument that will need to be made in re adding table games to Twin River Casino‘s already whopping arsenal of 4,764 slots.
… and next door, Chafee’s Connecticut counterpart, Dannel P. Malloy (D) is contemplating the inevitability of intrastate Internet gambling …
Need a job? Both Caesars Entertainment and Penn National Gaming could use a few thousand good men — and women — in Ohio, and fairly soon. But you’d better stock up on some Nicoderm or “the patch” if you’re serious about applying. One whiff of tobacco and you’re toast, son.
