Posted on 01/16/2019 11:41:22 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Within months of the law’s passage, the state began borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars against the anticipated revenue. Bond documents claimed video gambling machines would raise $300 million each year to help cover the debt payments.
It wasn’t until 2017, eight years after the legalization of video gambling, that the state came close to collecting that amount. By then, video gambling had brought in less than $1 billion to pay the bond debt — $1.3 billion short of what lawmakers anticipated.
But the costs of video gambling had already exacted a heavy toll on the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicago.suntimes.com ...
There is no overhead in taxing the video gambling machines in bars and gas stations. Two things are happening. Owners are under reporting winnings and government officials are skimming the profits.
I was raised in Illinois. I remember my kinfolk calling the Republicans the “stupid” party. They called the Democrats the “crooked” party. That was 60 years ago. The more things change the more they stay the same.
That’s a shell game most governments play, most charities use, and Planned Parenthood has perfected.
Yep, and I remember more than a few said “stupid” as a way of shaming them into doing something.
Not in Illinois! /s
At every key point, state officials made decisions that undercut taxpayers and helped the companies that market video gambling.
Not in Illinois! /s
Fear not!
The officials were following orders from House Speaker Michael Madigan, he runs a tight ship.
Good article with actual research. Glad to see the sun times can do real journalism...unlike their counterparts at the new york times.
The SunTimes did ‘print’ the article but more like taxpayers paid for the ‘public’ radio station to do the job.
Jason Grotto and Sandhya Kambhampati are ProPublica Illinois reporters. Dan Mihalopoulos is a reporter for WBEZ Chicago.
Ah, thanks
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