A proposal that would allow local businesses to obtain video gambling terminals is heading to the full City Council with some members of the city’s Human Services committee arguing in support of the ordinance’s benefit to local businesses.

Committee members on Monday voted 4-1 in favor of moving the ordinance forward to the full City Council, which next meets May 13.

Council member Eleanor Revelle (7th Ward), citing addiction concerns, cast the lone vote against.

Video gambling machines, seen in a Cicero cafe. Credit: Bob Seidenberg

Once an ordinance is approved for introduction at the council, there is generally a two-week wait until the next regular meeting for a proposal to be acted on.

Council member Devon Reid, chairing Monday night’s meeting, had made the original reference to the city to consider a video gambling ordinance in May 2023, noting that legalizing the activity could create an important source of revenue.

Reid said Monday he did so after the issue was who first brought to his attention by Robert “Rob’’ Bady, a fellow 8th Ward resident, and the Business Development manager of the Universal Gaming group based in Addison, which has roughly 200 video gambling locations in Illinois.

In the meantime, the fact that Illinois allows the city’s American Legion Post 42 and Veterans of Foreign Wards to apply for video games through the Illinois Gaming Board also factored in his decision, Reid said.

He also noted the spread of sports betting apps that people can now get on their phones as an influence.

“You don’t have to go to a casino, you don’t have to travel out to Rivers Casino in Des Plaines or wherever it is in order to gamble. You can do it at home from your computer, from your cell phone,” said Reid, who said he doesn’t gamble himself.

“I think it makes sense for us to allow our businesses to install these video gaming machines to get some of those people who might be gambling alone at home out of their houses and into our local businesses, in a community, in a place where they can get some food, have a drink,” he said.

Further, he referred to a list that Bady had provided the committee, showing support for the proposal from just about every ward in the city.

Gambling can become addictive: Revelle

But Revelle pointed to research that has come out since the committee began discussing the issue as persuasive in her opposition to moving forward.

“The overwhelming evidence from numerous academic studies indicate that video gaming is one of the most overwhelming forms of gaming,” she told committee members.

“Every detail of the video gaming experience, from the lights and the shape of the buttons to the sound effects,” she said, “has been meticulously designed to make people play longer and faster and to spend more money.”

Council Member Bobby Burns (5th Ward) listens as Council Member Council member Eleanor Revelle (7th Ward) speaks at Monday’s Human Services Committee meeting. Credit: Bob Seidenberg

Moreover, she said, studies show that “the rates of gambling addiction tend to increase with the number of gambling options, and so I think adding more gambling options here in Evanston would be a big mistake.”

She also questioned the financial benefits the move would create – $100,000 in new income, according to one estimate – “while gamblers would lose roughly one and a half million dollars a year playing gaming devices here in Evanston.”

Reid noted another estimate that gamblers would spend $1.5 million patronizing businesses elsewhere.

Making the best of a ‘not great situation’

“Does the city of Evanston get a cut of it because we regulate this and do our local businesses get to benefit from it because folks are keeping the behavior local, rather than taking it elsewhere,” he asked. “And so I highly appreciate these concerns and I think they are valid, but I think given the landscape it’s a battle that under our current regulations that we’ve lost, and I think what I’m looking to do is make the best of a not great situation.”

Other committee members, while acknowledging concerns, supported the ordinance moving forward, citing its benefit to local businesses.

Council member Juan Geracaris (9th Ward), said his support was for small businesses. “I know margins are tight with the way the economy is and this is a potential extra revenue stream,” he said.

Further, he observed, “gambling is not going anywhere. It seems like on a national scale, it’s going to be expanding and unless that changes, I think, we’d be remiss to not have it happen here too.”

Council member Krissie Harris (2nd Ward), pointed to the city’s recent ordinance banning the sale of flavored tobacco products because of its influence on youth.

“I want us to have that same energy for gambling,” she said to committee members. “Is that what we want in our restaurant” when out with kids, she asked.

“We just got rid of flavored tobacco because it was enticing the youth,” she noted. “I think the gaming on phones is enticing that at a younger age. And then the more we expose people to things the more it becomes commonplace. So I just want us to think of those things.”

Council member Bobby Burns (5th Ward) noted there was a time when gambling was the only flashing thing, as Revelle mentioned, that gave you rewards, “but now that is all loaded in the palm of your hands at any given time.”

He also noted the business community’s backing as support for moving the ordinance forward, “to allow the whole council to consider this.”

Under the proposed ordinance, nine establishments within the city would be allowed to obtain video gambling terminals. The businesses receiving the machines would have to be established at least 12 months and could have a maximum of three terminals each.

The fee for a video gambling license is $1,000 with an additional $500 per terminal fee paid annually.

Committee backs wellness pilot

At the meeting, committee members also backed spending of $400,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act COVID recovery funds to support an “Evanston Pathway to Wellness,” a one-year pilot program aimed at improving health outcomes.

The program would most specifically pinpoint census tract 8092 in the city’s Fifth Ward, where a Health Department study several years ago identified life expectancy as lower than other areas of the city.

Several council members, including Second Ward Committee Member Harris and Eighth Ward Committee Member Reid, said they would want the program to address areas in their wards where health disparities exist too.

Neticia Waldron, a longtime Evanston resident, author, and founder of Whole Woman Wellness, speaks in support of the “Pathway to Wellness” pilot program on Monday at the Human Services Committee meeting. Said Waldron: “What makes this program unique is it is considerate of the social determinants of health … the lack of resources that are available to focus on health outside of everyday tasks.” Credit: Bob Seidenberg

Fifth Ward Council member Bobby Burns, in whose ward the program is concentrated, said, “What I’m excited about is how we can quite literally extend peoples lives and allow them more time with their families and to be here with us.”

He said the research part of the program, in which the city will team up with the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, presents the opportunity “to add to the body of work, the medical work around these type of interventions.”

“And honestly, I think if you look at how the ARPA was fashioned,” he added later, “this was exactly what they really want to see local governments doing with these funds.”

The issue will next move to the council, probably for the May 28 meeting.