Senator proposes bidding for licenses

Brandon Loomis

Monday, Feb. 4, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

CHICAGO -- State Sen. Patrick O'Malley, a Republican candidate for governor, said Illinois should require competitive bidding for casino licenses.

O'Malley said Sunday he will introduce a bill this week to replace the Illinois Gaming Board practice of charging $75,000 for a license and $5,000 twice a year for license renewals. Instead, he would make all nine existing casinos and any new projects bid for the license at renewal time, possibly generating billions of dollars in state revenues, he said.

"The state of Illinois is getting bilked by riverboat casinos to the tune of nearly $1 billion a year," O'Malley said.

The casinos took in $1.66 billion last year and cleared $1.15 billion after taxes, he said. He figures their annual profit margin at 300 percent.

"Illinois taxpayers have not been getting anything close to fair market value," he said.

The senator is especially critical of a reported $615 million deal for MGM MIRAGE to take over the defunct Emerald casino license in suburban Rosemont. The state would receive $160 million from the settlement, some reports have said. The Gaming Board denied a license to Emerald last year, claiming it had ties to organized crime and its owners had lied to investigators.

O'Malley said the license should be worth up to $5 billion to the state.

In all, O'Malley estimates, the state could take in $16 billion in license sales starting this year and ending with the last scheduled renewal in Joliet in 2005. The licenses would be issued indefinitely but could be revoked for rules violations, under his plan.

O'Malley said he wants to use the money to pay debts on the Illinois FIRST infrastructure program, build new schools and roll back state fee increases tied to Illinois FIRST.