Illinois regulators plan hearing on compulsive gambling

James Webb

Wednesday, March 22, 2000 | 2:29 a.m.

CHICAGO - Illinois casino regulators are planning a daylong public hearing May 3 on compulsive gambling, featuring testimony from gamblers, treatment experts and casino officials on everything from the size of the problem to what the state should do about it.

It will be the first such hearing by the Illinois Gaming Board since the first riverboat casino opened in 1991. The idea was put on the front burner in recent months by relative newcomers to the agency, especially board Chairman Gregory C. Jones, who announced the plans at Tuesday's board meeting.

"As long as I've been here, it's been one of those things that has been just beneath the surface," said board Administrator Sergio Acosta, who joined the agency last summer.

"This is a way I think of the board getting a handle on just how big of a problem it is, and just what the board's response can be," Acosta said Wednesday.

The agenda has been announced and will be posted on the Gaming Board's Web site in coming days, but participants have not been finalized, Acosta said. The hearing will be held May 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the auditorium at the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago.

Acosta expects to have panels of witnesses testifying on four broad topics: defining and identifying gambling disorders; the scope of the problem, including demographics of problem gamblers and social costs such as crime; factors that effect compulsive gambling, including access to cash and gambling hours; and efforts at addressing the problem. The topics will include forms of legalized gambling besides the state's floating casinos, and regulators from the horse racing industry and state lottery will be invited, Acosta said.

In addition, about an hour at the end of the day will be reserved for comment by the general public or other interested parties who were not on one of the panels. Those interested in making a public comment should call the Gaming Board's Chicago office at (312) 814-4700, Acosta said.

"The board's going into it with a totally open mind as far as what the appropriate response or actions might be," Acosta said. "And if that means proposing legislation or rule changes, then that's certainly a possibility."