Are Gaming Bill Delays Hurting Rockford?
Rockford native and Cheap Trick singer Rick Nielsen speaks at the 2019 groundbreaking for the new Hard Rock Casino proposed for Rockford. The Illinois Gaming Board has yet to approve the license.
When Governor JB Pritzker signed a gambling expansion bill in June of 2019, it authorized new casino licenses in Chicago, Danville, Waukegan and Rockford, as well as one in southern Illinois; and one license for a casino in south suburban Cook County.
The Illinois Gaming Board has yet to act on casino applications nearly two years later. Leaders in one of the communities set for a casino, Rockford, say they’re concerned a new Wisconsin casino could hurt their efforts to gain traction.
Wednesday, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers approved a $400 million casino project for the Ho-Chunk Nation in Beloit, just some 15 miles north of Rockford.
Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford), says he’s concerned the slow pace of approval for the Rockford bid, which is anchored by the “Hard Rock” property name, will be in for a tougher fight if forced to compete with an established casino in Wisconsin. He says because the Wisconsin casino will be owned and operated by a Native American tribe, it will pay fewer taxes.
“[It] will have a potentially devastating impact because the Indian casinos don’t pay taxes so they can afford to pay larger purses and subsidize their hotels,” Syverson said. “I wanted us to be able to be at least first out there so we could be the first one open..”
(Disclosure: I worked on Senate Republican staff from 2013-2014 and Sen. Syverson was a member I worked closely with.)
The Rockford Register Star reported in February the Illinois Gaming Board made a preliminary determination that the $310 million casino complex in Rockford was "suitable” for development.
But Gaming Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter warned Hard Rock that the finding was far from a final approval. Fruchter encouraged the company to continue to cooperate with the state's analysis of owners, ownership structure, investors, vendors and employees.
"Preliminary suitability is an important step in the licensure process, but it is not the ultimate step," Fruchter said. "It is not final licensure, nor is it a guarantee of final licensure."
The law laid out a 12-month deadline to approve casino licenses, which has come and gone for Rockford’s potential facility. Syverson says while casinos in the state were closed much of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gaming Board could have been making progress on bids like Rockford.
He says there’s no excuse for the Gaming Board to take 19-months or more to approve a Rockford casino.
“Every month that this gets delayed, between the city and the state, there’s millions being lost,” Syverson said. “It’s just frustrating.”
In January, local officials in Danville, which was also approved for a casino, were also concerned with delays, according to the News-Gazette in Champaign:
“Now we’re simply waiting on the state,” Mayor Rickey Williams said. “No one has been approved yet, and COVID set everything back.”
Illinois Gaming Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter said in October that the coronavirus pandemic had delayed many of the steps that are part of the application process.
“COVID-19 made certain routine IGB activities — such as applicant and key person interviews, site visits, fingerprint analysis, and obtaining official tax documents and other records from state, local and federal agencies — difficult and at times impossible,” he said.
The gaming board is supposed to approve licenses within a year or provide a written explanation for why it hasn’t.
“The IGB does not comment on pending investigations of new casino applicants,” spokesman Gene O’Shea said. “Additionally, the board does not speculate on timelines associated with any licensing decision.”
Danville’s application was submitted Nov. 23 after city officials approved a new bid in August.
A new casino in the city of Chicago is also proposed, but still unresolved. A spokesman for the Illinois Gaming Board did not return a message from The Illinoize Thursday.
