WMBD 1470AM

April 29, 2010

Greg and Dan

 

A former special agent for the FBI thinks there will be no increase in crime if video gaming is allowed in Peoria County. The Peoria County Board has been debating opting out of a new state law that will allow video gaming.

 

To hear the entire interview, click here.

Chicago Tribune

April 26, 2010

Hal Dardick, Tribune Reporter

 

 

 As backers of video gambling stepped up efforts to make the machines legal in Chicago, a key alderman on Monday agreed to hold hearings on the issue.

Ald. Eugene Schulter, 47th, chairman of the City Council committee that would consider video gambling, made the commitment after a coalition of business groups and labor unions staged a rally at City Hall with hundreds of workers as a backdrop.

Chicago Sun-Times

April 26, 2010

Fran Spielman, City Hall Reporter

 

More than 130,000 jobs will be lost -- and so will the chance to convince downtown hotel guests to stop taking shuttle buses to Indiana casinos -- if the City Council fails to lift the Chicago ban on video poker, business and labor groups argued Monday.

The coalition known as "Back to Work Illinois" has already met privately with Chicago aldermen. Now they're trotting out a former FBI agent-turned-gaming industry consultant to counter the argument that legalizing video gambling will open the door to organized crime.

Fox Chicago News

April 26, 2010

Nancy Pender

 

 

Chicago - A group called "Back to Work Illinois" showed up at City Hall on Monday to ask Chicago aldermen to break the ban on video gambling.

 

ABC7

April 26, 2010

 

 

The push to bring video poker to Chicago may be gaining momentum.

Those supporting the idea gathered Monday at City Hall to make their point, trying to convince the City Council to reverse the ordinance banning the machines in Chicago.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

City Council must lift ban on video gaming to provide needed funds

CHICAGO – Hundreds of individuals representing a broad and diverse coalition of business, labor, community and neighborhood organizations gathered today at City Hall to urge the City Council to promote investment in Chicago communities, create badly needed jobs and help the economy recover by lifting the City’s ban of the new, state-managed video gaming system necessary to fund critical infrastructure projects.

“We must act now to help working men and women across Chicago support their families and make improvement to our neighborhoods,” said Tom Villanova, President of the Chicago and Cook County Building Trades. “People are struggling today and we can’t wait any longer. We need to get people back to work.”

Peoria Journal Star

April 3, 2010

Mike Everett and Dan Silverthorn

 

With Illinois facing an economic crisis marked by an unprecedented deficit and double-digit unemployment, state leaders did the right thing in passing a capital bill.

Specifically, the bill approved last year in Springfield promises to invest $31 billion in our communities and transportation systems and create 439,000 jobs statewide over the next five years. It marks the first major investment program in Illinois in a decade and is the right prescription for an ailing state economy.

Chicago News Cooperative

April 1, 2010

Dan Mihalopoulos

 

On Chicago’s gritty far southeast corner, which in the past few decades has seen factories rust and grandiose plans for a Lake Calumet airport fizzle, a couple of dozen neighborhood bar and restaurant owners gathered at the Knights of Columbus hall on a late winter evening to learn about the latest big-ticket plan: video gambling.

Alderman John Pope (10th Ward) told them he believed that a “large majority” of City Council members would soon join him in voting to lift the ban on gambling in Chicago, placing the city in a state program that will allow as many as five video gambling terminals in any business that has a license to sell liquor for on-site consumption.

Daily Herald

April 1, 2010

Joseph Ryan, Daily Herald Staff

 

In the wake of numerous suburbs rejecting legalized video gambling in bars and other businesses, supporters of the state-authorized expansion are moving to stem their losses and save the multibillion-dollar deal.

The gambling industry-funded "Back to Work Illinois" has been lobbying suburban mayors, newspapers and other public officials in recent weeks after more than 70 governmental bodies opted out of the legalization. The group is also working to convince Chicago officials to opt into the legalization - a critical element in saving the plan.

Naperville Sun and Aurora Beacon News

March 31, 2010

Denise Crosby

 

I, for one, am jumping on the video gaming bandwagon.

Put those darn machines in every bar. In every restaurant. In every private club, hotel lobby and ladies' bathroom. The more the merrier, because the money generated from these machines will build our roads and schools and sewers and bridges. It will put the unemployed back to work, more policemen on the streets, and, heck, it might even save the planet from global warming and alien invasions.