Should Illinois expand gambling as one way of easing its budget troubles?

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Yes		50%	14 votes	Total: 28 votes
No		50%	14 votes	Total: 28 votes

Yes

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If city-owned gambling institutions have successfully raised money for Hawaiian Gardens, California and Compton, California, then it stands to reason that gambling institutions would also successfully raise money for the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois.

There are several benefits expanding gambling within the state. Casinos would bring jobs into economically depressed areas as well as tourism. These things would help to sustain small businesses and community development in blighted areas. Tax revenue raised from casinos would benefit so many necessary state and city programs. Bringing casinos closer to the city might even have an effect on traffic and the environment as fewer people would travel north western Indiana or Milwaukee, where some of the nearest casinos are located.

While it is true that casinos have long been associated with corruption, a number of corruption-free charity poker games exist in the city of Chicago and in the five-county area. These games have not reported any accidents, public drunkenness, riots or violent crimes. The game of poker has also proliferated online. The worst thing associated with online poker, so far, has been tax evasion, as the FBI has yet to connect specific websites with terrorist cells. Mass gambling addiction is also another unsupported concern. It is entirely possible to request that a friend, family member and even one's self be banned from a casino in the state of Illinois for fear of gambling addiction.

The alternatives to expanding gambling would be raising sales, income and property taxes or cutting already scant services. In this economy, raising any kind of taxes would be a worse crime than corruption associated with gambling. Raising sales tax would cause people to buy less and businesses would suffer. Raising income taxes would further cut families' incomes and diminish any hope of appropriate saving behavior. And raising property taxes would eat into already tight mortgage payments and possibly have a negative impact on foreclosure rates. At the same time, schools, libraries, public transportation, roads and parks need every drop of additional funding they can get. These institutions help us to sustain our way of life in this state and, no matter how much our personal incomes are, we are all poorer when their funding is cut.

So in conclusion, the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago should bring a little southern California ingenuity to the snowy tundra: crack down on smokers, start a cash deposit recycling program, woo In-and-Out Burgers, place a recall on the ballot, send kids to college at $11 a unit, raise minimum wage to $10 an hour and build city-owned casinos in blighted areas to raise revenue. Who know, if Illinois only tried, they might be able to do California better than California does California.

Learn more about this author, J.T. Nowen.
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No

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by Mona Gallagher

The state of Illinois is an intricate web of networks from Chicago to Springfield. It's difficult to identify the good guys from the bad guys, but lately with the trial of Tony Rezko, we've learned that Illinois politicians have multiple relationships with all kinds of people. The expansion of gambling would open an additional avenue to the networking system.

Let's explore some of these multiple relationships:

Rod Blagoyevich, Governor of Illinois is said to be under federal investigation because of his relationship with Tony Rezko and the testimony at Rezko's trial implicating him in state appointments. The Rezko court documents may be found at: [http://blogs.suntim es.com/rezko/2008/07 /rezko_here_are_blag o_and_obama_1.html]

T ony Rezko has a long term friendship with Barack Obama. One publication, and maybe more than one, suggests that Obama was instrumental in helping Rezko obtain Chicago City contracts for his housing rehab business in addition to their joint real estate buy. [Case Against Barack Obama, by David Freddoso]

Alexi Giannoulias, comes from a family of bankers who allegedly gave (or gives) loans to the mob. He is currently the Illinois State Treasurer and he was a speaker at the DNC in August. He's a good friend of Obama and they used to shoot hoops together.

Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, said not long ago, "There's no crime in Chicago," and more recently said, "There is no Chicago machine." Chicago City Hall provided more than a million dollars worth of contracts to Tony Rezko for his Rezmar business. The buildings he "rehabbed" are boarded up and abandoned.

Illinois has sent more than one governor to jail from both parties, and some of the Mayor's aides have been indicted on mail fraud charges.

Freddoso writes about the late John Stroger and a patronage system where friends and families benefited in his Cook County Board of Commissioners. Contributions to his campaign were the key to getting ahead in the organization. Stroger's son Todd, with the endorsement of Senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, stepped into his father's shoes when he left the race.

Expansion of gambling in Illinois is not, in my opinion, the best way to balance the state budget. Given the history of Illinois and politicians that populate the present government system, it would exacerbate the problems that already exist. The network of multiple relationships could grow even larger.

If Illinois truly wants to ease it's state budget problems, the governor should take a good look at all the political networking practices of patronage and special interests in Illinois and make some changes that would direct the money to where it rightfully belongs. It would also put qualified people in positions instead of political contributors.

Reform is needed but it's not possible as long as the network perpetuates itself by nepotism and patronage.

Gambling brings undesirable elements to the best environment, but to expand it in Illinois is tantamount to waving a red flag in front of a bull.

Learn more about this author, Mona Gallagher.
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