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News
Oswego Board asked to reconsider gambling ban : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisOswego Board asked to reconsider gambling ban
| Tavern owner says business needs revenue from video poker
| by John Etheredge
| 2/28/2013
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An Oswego business owner urged the village board this past week to reconsider the village's 78 year-old gambling ban.
Debbie Krzeminski, owner of the Oswego Inn at Main and Jackson streets in the village's downtown, told board members Feb. 19 her tavern and other establishments need the additional revenue that would come from lifting the ban.
"We need help," Krzeminski said, referring to her business and others in the village.
She continued, "This is for our financial health before we have to close some doors. So, please, put it back on your agenda and re-evaluate."
Board members took no action on Krzeminski's request.
Last July, the board voted 3-2 to reject a motion to repeal the 1935 ordinance that prohibits gambling.
The board had considered lifting the ban at the request of Krzeminski along with the manager of the Oswego American Legion Post 675 and the owner of the former Nick and Pat's pub. All three establishments had asked the board to lift the ban to allow them to install up to five video poker machines as permitted under a state law passed by the Illinois General Assembly in 2009.
Krzeminski and the other business owners told the board they need to offer the machines to their patrons to remain competitive with comparable establishments in other nearby communities that have lifted their gambling bans and permitted the machines.
In making her request for the board to reconsider lifting the ban, Krzeminski cited a Feb. 7 Chicago Tribune article that showed the number of municipalities to lift their gambling bans to allow video gaming has increased dramatically since last July.
The Tribune reported that 48 percent of the municipalities in the six county Chicago regions now allow video poker, up from just 28 percent last July.
In addition, the report shows that Illinois gamblers placed $23.2 million into video poker machines, with establishments that house the games and operators who own them making nearly $5 million. The average profit per establishment after taxes in December was $8,838, according to the Tribune.
Among the communities to now permit video gambling are Montgomery, Yorkville and Aurora. The Montgomery Village Board voted unanimously in September to amend village code to permit the machines. They acted at the request of the Montgomery Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Post 7452.
Krzeminski asked the board to place video gambling back on their agenda for consideration.
She said the Tribune article provides the board with "more substantial information" and shows video gambling would be a good revenue source for the village.
"So, please revise the ordinance and help the businesses like myself to stay in business," Krzeminski said.
Under state law, each video game machine has a maximum payout of $500 and is subject to a tax of 30 percent on its income. A total of five-sixths of the tax revenue generated by each machine would be placed in the State's Capital Projects Fund, while one-sixth would be deposited into a Local Government Video Gaming Distributive Fund.
According to Illinois Municipal League (IML) estimates provided to the board in a memo last summer, businesses with five video gaming machines would generate an estimated $11,250 in tax revenue for local municipalities annually.
In a memo presented to the board last summer, then-Village Clerk Jeanne Hester estimated that there are 10 businesses in the village that would potentially be interested in offering video gaming machines and each would be allowed to have up to five machines.
Hester wrote: "That equates to a maximum of 50 video gaming machines allowed by the state. At the current (municipal) licenses fee of $100 per machine, the village would realize about $5,000 in license fee revenue...Those same 50 machines, using the IML estimates, would bring in approximately $112,500 in tax revenues from the state; this more than makes up for any increase in fees that the village would adopt."
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