Betting Sports Odds: Will video poker machines help or hurt? Depends on whom you ask

Betting Sports Odds: Will video poker machines help or hurt? Depends on whom you ask
By Matt Arado
Daily Herald Staff
The plan to legalize gambling on video poker machines in Illinois has elicited both cheers and jeers in the suburbs.
Some believe the machines will provide a boost to local businesses and generate much-needed revenue for the state diminishing the need to enact or hike another tax. Opponents say the plan will entice more people, including young adults, to become addicted to gambling.
The gambling expansion is part of a capital construction plan designed to help fund $26 billion in construction projects by hiking fees, raising taxes and creating new revenue, like the receipts derived from video poker machines.
The plan will allow gambling to occur on machines in bars, restaurants, VFW halls and other venues. The plan won approval from the state Senate earlier this week. The House approved it Thursday.
The Daily Herald checked in with a number of people in the suburbs to get their thoughts about the video poker issue. Here are their responses:
• Ted Arvanitis, manager of The Sports Page Restaurant and Bar in Arlington Heights:
Arvanitis said the bar crowd at the Sports Page shrank when the statewide smoking ban went into effect last year. Video poker machines might bring at least some of those people back, he said.
"We notice it in the colder months, especially," said Arvanitis, who has managed the Rand Road establishment for eight years. "People decided they didn't want to come if it meant having to stand outside in the cold to smoke. I wouldn't be surprised if poker machines enticed a few of those folks to come back."
Arvanitis said the addition of a few machines probably wouldn't change the atmosphere of his establishment.
"We cater to a lot of families here, and I don't think poker machines would change that," he said.
• Mike Barbour, a member of the Judd Kendal VFW Post 3873 in Naperville:
The presence of poker machines inside the VFW hall wouldn't necessarily bring more people to the organization or provide a windfall of cash, Barbour said. Still, they could help.
"It would allow us to do more for veterans," Barbour said. "We don't have space for more than two or three of the machines, but with them we could spend more on veterans in need, or those at (V.A. hospitals) who need assistance.
"I think that's the feeling among most of the veterans' groups around here. We're not begging for these things, but we'll take advantage if they're available."
Barbour said the VFW used to have poker machines in the past, but got rid of them.
"That actually forced us to work harder at maintaining our finances," he said. "Now we're in good shape, but a little more would always be welcome."
• Jim Kasputis, owner of Rockford Charitable Games Association, a group that helps organize poker/gambling events for charity groups throughout the suburbs:
Rockford Charitable Games helps plan roughly four events a week throughout the Chicago area. Would legalized gambling on poker machines hurt the business? Kasputis doesn't think so.
"If anything, it might inspire the kinds of groups we work with to hold more events at VFWs and American Legions, because they can get a cut of the action," Kasputis said.
"Frankly, a lot of places already have these machines. The state might as well get some tax money from them."
• The Rev. Nathaniel Edmond, pastor of Second Baptist Church, Elgin:
Edmond said the state's willingness to expand gambling to fill budget holes makes him wonder whether legislators value the communities they serve.
"It seems like once you start looking at budgetary deficits, 'community' becomes less important," he said. "This plan would present more opportunities for people to engage in negative behavior. That's very distressing to me.
"I understand the difficulties the state faces. You need creativity to come up with solutions that truly help everybody. I see no creativity here."
• Kurt Becker, owner of Twin Oaks Music and Vending in Aurora:
Becker is a strong supporter of the video poker provision, and not, he says, just because he could make some money off it.
Approval could certainly help Twin Oaks, which supplies coin-operated amusement machines to bars and restaurants, but it also will help save jobs in the struggling bar/restaurant industry in the suburbs and across the state, Becker said.
"Local, privately owned bars and restaurants are hurting," Becker said. "They're being taxed to death, and they've been hurt by the smoking ban. Something like this (will) be an economic boost for them."
• Wayne Burdick, director of the Outreach Foundation in Downers Grove, which counsels gambling addicts:
Burdick said he would expect the number of addicts to skyrocket given the pervasiveness of gambling in bars and at truck stops.
"Let's face it, we know that bars are a place that people have gambled, but you are now making it absolutely OK," Burdick said. "You are saying it is just fine and you are increasing the people who are going to be exposed."


Betting Sports Odds: Will video poker machines help or hurt? Depends on whom you ask