Gambling Action Alert

2006 Legislative Candidate Survey

ILCAAAP recently sent a survey on gambling related issues to all Legislative Candidates. Legislative candidates will be attending many events in your community this summer.

For Immediate Action

1. Call or ask Legislative Candidates in your district to state their position on gambling by completing ILCAAAP's Legislative Candidate Survey. Download a copy of the Survey. NOTE: Call the County Clerk's office or e-mail ILCAAAP for the names of the Legislative candidates in your district.
2. Share this message with the people in your Church, Synagogue, or Mosque.
3. FORWARD to 6 others.

Gambling Expansion Proposals

Lottery

• The Governor is asking Legislators to vote on the proposal to sell or lease the Lottery after the November election. A private company would expand the Lottery to increase sales—keno, Video Lottery Terminals, and Internet Lottery. Video Lottery Terminals are electronic gambling machines similar to slot machines. These video slots are called the "crack cocaine of gambling" because of the speed by which people become addicted. Iowa recently banned these machines from their Lottery less than one year after they were legalized because of the public outcry. If the Illinois Lottery is sold or leased, the Illinois General Assembly would not be able to rein it in like they did in Iowa.
  More than one hundred years ago the Louisiana Lottery, which was run by a private corporation from 1868 to1895, was the most corrupt lottery in the nation. The company operating the lottery became almost as powerful as the Legislature. State constitutions throughout the country were changed to ban lotteries because of all the corruption. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)

Horse Racing

• The Illinois Racing Board will hold a series of public hearings to address the economic impact of horse racing, competitive forces, and solutions (slots at racetracks and account wagering that would legalize Internet gambling).

Casinos

• Casinos want to expand the number of gambling positions so they can double or triple in size on land.
• Politicians and gambling promoters want additional casinos in Chicago, Lake County (Waukegan), South Suburbs of Cook County (Country Club Hills), Des Plaines, and Rockford.
• Off-reservation casinos have been proposed by the Ho-Chunk Nation (Wisconsin), which purchased land in Lynwood and the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation of Kansas, which recently purchased land in Shabbona. There are no reservations in Illinois.

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