106 Lake County churches seek gaming veto

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A coalition of 106 churches in Lake County has signed a petition that has been sent to Gov. Pat Quinn, urging him to veto the casino expansion plan. | Sun-Times Media FIle

Updated: August 19, 2011 12:18AM

A coalition of 106 churches in Lake County has signed a petition that has been sent to Gov. Pat Quinn, urging him to veto the casino expansion plan.

Carl “Spark” Ball, executive director of Love in the Name of Christ of Lake County, a Gurnee church, said some studies indicate that for every dollar that’s generated in taxes from gambling, there is $3 in social costs, such as increased crime and foreclosures and bankruptcy caused by compulsive gambling.

“The social costs are too high for the amount of taxes generated,” he said.

“From a Lake County perspective, we don’t see it being a good business decision.”

A gambling expansion plan that recently passed both Houses of the General Assembly and is awaiting the governor’s signature would create five new casinos in Illinois, including one in Park City.

Supporters of the bill, including state Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, believe a new casino in Park City will be a boost to the local economy, adding jobs and generating sales tax revenues for municipal coffers.

Link, who has long been a proponent of a Lake County casino, said the casino will create jobs, including temporary jobs during construction and permanent jobs for employees of the casino. He said a new casino which is scheduled to open this summer in Des Plaines is hiring about 1,000 employees, and he expects a Park City casino would employ similar numbers.

No analysis has yet been done on how much sales tax revenue a Park City casino might generate.

However, Link said a few years ago an analysis was done for a proposed casino in Waukegan and estimated it would generate about $20 million a year in sales tax receipts for local government units.

Link said that currently, local gambling dollars are being spent in casinos across the border in Wisconsin.

Quinn has not yet decided whether he will support the state gambling expansion plan, which would also add casinos in Chicago, Rockford, Danville and a still-to-be determined location in the south suburbs.