Illinois gov: No new casinos, so lease lottery

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, acknowledging his past year’s attempt to get new casinos and racetrack slots past state House Speaker Michael J. Madigan was a failure, now wants to lease out the Illinois Lottery to help fund the governor’s latest capital improvement program.

Blagojevich has downsized the planned budget for improving roads, schools and other infrastructure to $25 billion. When three or four taxable casinos and 4,000 racino slot machines were in the mix, he eyed $34 billion. Illinois has had no capital-improvements budget for a decade, partly because lawmakers worry about raising taxes to fund one.

The Daily Herald of Arlington Heights noted that Blagojevich abandoned the casino quest-which he pursued for taxes, not because he favors more gambling. In an extensive series, the newspaper reported that casinos are tightening slot payouts to maintain profits as play slacks off in the current economy, and that Illinois ranks low in the Midwest for gambling addiction
programs.

Legislators defeated another Blagojevich lottery-leasing proposal early this year, and at least one chided the governor’s renewed hope for a multimillion-dollar up-front payment from a private company wanting to lease the state lottery. Residents accepted the lottery to fund education, not construction, said Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, standing in for Madigan at the meeting where Blagojevich announced his plan.