Prerogative denied
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s and Chicago residents’ efforts to keep video gambling terminals (VGTs) out of bars and restaurants in six wards came to nothing after a key Chicago City Council (CCC) panel voted the opposite way.
On Thursday, the CCC panel voted to reject two ordinances that would have banned the VGTs in Chicago’s 26th, 27th, 28th, 33rd, 35th, and 49th Wards.
broke with “a decades-old tradition” that gives alderpeople the final say
As minutes of the controversial meeting emerged, the US Sun reported that the CCC panel’s move broke with “a decades-old tradition” that gives alderpeople the final say over licensing within their own wards.
The CCC’s $16.6bn 2026 budget spending plan is counting on $6.8m from newly legalized VGTs. While Thursday’s vote handed pro-VGT aldermen a victory, it left those (including Mayor Johnson) claiming the machines would worsen addiction and reduce the quality of life in their wards “furious.”
Lines of division
Aldermen Jason Ervin (28th) and Walter Burnett (27th) asked the CCC’s License and Consumer Protection Chair, Debra Silverstein, not to vote to reject the two ordinances on Thursday.
Silverstein, instead, elected to bypass the tradition of ward matters being left to the local alderperson by putting the VLT ordinances to committee vote.
The CCC voted 16-2 and 14-3 in favor of not banning the VGTs and reportedly drew a “furious and incredulous response” from Ervin, a key ally of Mayor Johnson.
“This is a whole new era we are in,” Ervin told his peers on Thursday, warning them they were about to break with aldermanic prerogative, before reportedly signing off from the meeting “in disgust.”
Ervin later told the Chicago Sun-Times that in his 15 year tenure on the Council he’d never seen “a ward-based matter done in this manner. “This is highly unusual.”
Winds of change
Aldermen who pushed to reject the bans included Anthony Napolitano (41st), who argued the VGTs would help businesses in Chicago.
“This is an economic increase to our deflated economy in Chicago to bring more revenue into our city, especially because, as a border ward, I’m being destroyed by my surrounding suburbs that already have VGTs actively running.”
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said the ban attempt was “just a maneuver to try and blow a hole in the budget,” which forecasts that 80% of approximately 3,300 eligible Chicago establishments will apply for VGT licenses.
Last month, Beale approved a resolution triggering the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) to begin processing VGT applications. According to IGB spokesperson Elizabeth Kaufman, the regulator has so far received 207 VGT applications from Chicago bars and restaurants.
