\nSaying they messed up, state regulators have revoked a video gaming license from a catering company that planned to open a mini-casino in a low-income retirement home in Dolton.<\/p>\n
\tThe Illinois Gaming Board had awarded Giovanni\u2019s Catering Inc. a license in April but revisited that decision after the Better Government Association, in a Public Eye column, raised questions about how that license was vetted and the presence of a child day care in the Dorchester Senior Center complex.<\/p>\n
\tThe Dorchester, owned by the Village of Dolton, was to be the first \u201csupportive living facility\u201d in Illinois with video gaming terminals. Supportive living facilities provide housing for low-income residents in exchange for government subsidies.<\/p>\n
\tGiovanni\u2019s hosts parties, dances and other events in the Dorchester\u2019s banquet hall. The catering firm planned to build a separate lounge, open to residents and the public, with alcohol, food and video gaming terminals \u2014 which offer electronic poker, slots and the like, cost money to play and pay out winnings.<\/p>\n
\tBut that plan hit a snag because Giovanni\u2019s, according to its municipal liquor license, can serve alcohol only during \u201corganized functions for which planned attendance is 20 or more persons.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe gaming board now says that alcohol restriction means Giovanni\u2019s is unable to comply with a state law that requires alcohol to be available whenever gaming machines are in operation, according to interviews and records.<\/p>\n
\tGiovanni\u2019s told regulators it planned to offer alcohol and gaming seven days a week \u2014 but that isn\u2019t possible with its current special event liquor license.<\/p>\n
\tGaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe acknowledges his agency should have figured all this out before a gaming license was approved this past spring. But Jaffe said a scarcity of resources, coupled with the statewide explosion of video gaming, is complicating the vetting process.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI wish I could tell you we catch every discrepancy that comes down the line,\u201d Jaffe says. But \u201cwe haven\u2019t been properly staffed since this began.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe agency\u2019s headcount is 286 \u2014 it\u2019s been approved for 350, officials say.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe state is always in a financial crunch,\u201d Jaffe says. \u201cBut our budget comes from gambling [revenues]. For some reason we haven\u2019t gotten the authority\u201d to hire more people.<\/p>\n
\tThere are currently no pending hiring requests from the gaming board that are awaiting the governor\u2019s approval, says Abdon Pallasch, a spokesman for the Governor\u2019s Office of Management and Budget. \u201cIf and when they come, we will act on them promptly,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\tGov.-elect Bruce Rauner said in recent days that the state\u2019s budget problems are worse than he had expected, so it\u2019s unclear if under the new administration more cash will flow the gaming board\u2019s way. A Rauner spokesman said he has \u201cnothing to add\u201d on this subject.<\/p>\n
\tVideo gaming has exploded since state law changed in 2009 to allow gaming terminals in bars, restaurants, trucks stops and other spots where liquor is served. Before gaming machines can go live, individual municipalities and the gaming board must give the OK.<\/p>\n
\tThe first machines in Illinois went live in October 2012 \u2013 there are now 18,800 statewide (at more than 4,600 locations) and more are on the way, though apparently not at the Dorchester.<\/p>\n
\tThe gaming board issued Giovanni\u2019s a \u201ccomplaint for revocation\u201d in late November. The caterer has 21 days to respond but even then its gaming license can still be revoked.<\/p>\n
\tGiovanni\u2019s hadn\u2019t yet installed video gaming machines, even though it had the license, because it needed to pass a final site inspection. Regulators visited the Dorchester in October and discovered problems with the caterer\u2019s liquor license, officials said.<\/p>\n
\tLoren Robinson, Giovanni\u2019s owner, says he isn\u2019t giving up.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019m going to see if I can get <\/p>\n
\tDolton village officials, though, indicated that\u2019s unlikely.<\/p>\n
\tHard Times<\/p>\n
\tOnly 39 beds, or 31 percent of the Dorchester\u2019s 126 beds, are occupied. In recent years, annual losses to the village have ranged from $400,000 to $800,000. This year that figure may reach $1 million, village officials say.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe should not be in this business,\u201d Trustee Cathy Bendell says.<\/p>\n
\tThe village board rejected an offer earlier this year to sell the Dorchester for at least $3 million. Instead, trustees had hoped that tax revenues from video gaming would help the Dorchester bounce back.<\/p>\n
\tBut our earlier Public Eye item questioned if the village was taking advantage of poor people. Of the 40 or so Dorchester residents, roughly half are on public aid \u2013 with take-home monthly incomes as low as $90 each, officials said.<\/p>\n
\tAfter that item Jaffe said the gaming board would revisit Giovanni\u2019s license.<\/p>\n
\tCook County Sheriff Tom Dart also began investigating the no-bid contract that Dolton awarded Giovanni\u2019s to operate the mini-casino. Dart is also Dolton\u2019s inspector general.<\/p>\n
\tIn October, the sheriff\u2019s office recommended Dolton revoke Giovanni\u2019s liquor license because of concerns that allowing the public to drink and gamble at the development could jeopardize the safety of the residents of the retirement home and the children at the day care.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saying they messed up, state regulators have revoked a video gaming license from a catering company that planned to open a mini-casino in a low-income retirement home in Dolton. The Illinois Gaming Board had awarded Giovanni\u2019s Catering Inc. a license…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}