Will now come to order.
Today we have one agenda item, a subject matter hearing on
02026-0026123. No vote will be
taken today.
Before we begin, I will be establishing quorum.
Alderman Yancy? Alderman Hall? Alderman Hall is present. Alderman Beale?
Alderman Chico? Alderman Chico is present. Alderwoman Ramirez?
Alderwoman Ramirez is present. Alderman Quinn? Alderman Quinn is present.
Alderman Coleman? Alderman Curtis? Chair Rodriguez is present.
Alderman Tally-Ferrell?
Alderman Tally-Ferrell is present. Alderman Casada?
Alderman Casada is present. Alderman Sposato?
Alderman Sposato is present. Alderman Vasquez? Alderwoman Clay?
We have eight members, we do have quorum.
I'd like to acknowledge non-committee members who are in attendance.
Alders Fuentes,
Cardona, Rodriguez Sanchez.
I miss anybody? Alderman Robinson
as well.
Is that everybody? Lovely.
Online, we have Alderwoman
Silverstein, Alderman Silverstein, Alderperson
Vasquez, and Alderman Yancy.
By Rule 59, they've requested participation in this meeting.
May I accept a motion to accept their attendance
by Alderman Hall?
All those in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? There's one.
In the opinion of the chair, the I's have it.
Lovely.
At this time, we will allow for Alders
Vasquez, Silverstein, and Yancy to
participate remotely.
We will begin the public comment period. The public comment period is 30 minutes.
Out of respect for everybody's time, each speaker is limited to three
minutes. I will call the individual, then the next individual after that.
We have a full house,
so we can't allow others in outside of those who'll be speaking.
So if you allow me, if someone's still outside and
gets chosen to speak publicly, we'll wait for them to get in here.
The first speaker is Adrian Alexander.
She's outside. Okay, we're going to have to communicate.
Part of her is going to go out. And then Larry Huggins.
Okay, why don't you go, Larry, and then we'll get Adrian next. So Mr.
Huggins, go right ahead.
And you can approach the mic back there.
This nice big screen back here will have your time,
and it begins when you speak.
Well, good morning, and thanks for the opportunity to let me
speak before your committee.
I'm a firm believer in promises made, promises should be
kept. Bally's is the largest
private sector project that has ever been built in the city of Chicago.
Bally's simply made four promises.
They went in the community and talk about the importance of having
residents involved in this project to make the city
residency requirement goal
From my understanding, they have actually exceeded that goal.
Bally's also went into community and met with every minority
contracting community and talked about subcontract and
opportunities for both minorities and women.
Bally's has also exceeded that goal.
Bally's also came to this body
and talked about the importance of having labor
involved in the building of this Bally's hotel
and union personnel working at Bally's.
My understanding is that they have also
surpassed that goal.
Bally's also made a commitment to make sure that minority
contractors was paid on a timely basis.
They have also made a commitment and have done that.
And to a certain extent, I think the City of Chicago could probably
learn from some of the things that Bally's has done, especially when it
comes to making sure that contractors, whether you're minority or
majority, get paid on a timely manner.
So when you have an organization that have came to
this body and made those commitments and promises and have
lived up to those,
this body has a responsibility, in my opinion, to make
sure that they are given the opportunity
to be able to prove up that the revenue that
this casino's going to give back to the city to pay for
police and fire, they have an opportunity to do that,
and there should not be other organizations that get in the
way of doing that. To me, I think based upon those
commitments and promises that Bally's has made and done, I think they
should be given the benefit of the doubt to make sure
over a period of time that they can live up to those commitments.
And if they can't live up to those commitments, then you also have an opportunity
at a later date to come back and make some changes to
that. Just want to thank you for my comments and appreciate it.
Thank you, Mr. Huggins, and thank you for letting everyone know that three minutes
is a max, it's not a minimum. Thank you so much.
Did I say that right? At any rate, second speaker is Adrian
Alexander.
Okay. Thank you.
Good morning, Workforce Development Committee. My name is Adrian Alexander.
I'm the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for AFSCME Council 31, and we're
here today because the revenue from gaming impacts the
4,000 members we represent who work for the City of Chicago.
We're here in this committee under the auspices of discussing an ordinance that
allows the CFO to negotiate an amended casino agreement that improves
workforce training and pathways at the city's casino, which I'd guess
that everyone conceptually supports.
What I imagine most of our time here will be spent discussing, though, is the
provision that repeals the VGTs included in this year's budget.
Most of the discussion and licensing committee on this issue has come down to
Bally's versus VGTs. It should be stated explicitly that
AFSCME wants Bally's City Casino to succeed.
It's critical revenue source that frees up corporate fund dollars to maintain
vital city services. This City Council also passed the
budget that includes VGTs as a revenue source
that supports corporate fund positions, many of them represented by our union.
We often talk about the severe structural difficulties the city faces
in balancing its budget and concerns regarding whether revenue is
meeting expectations needed to maintain
budgeted expenditures. At various
points, we've heard that gaming revenue from temporary casinos
continues to fall short of expectations, and earlier this year, the
state had to extend the license for the temporary casino, which means we'll have to
wait longer for the city to realize the expected revenue.
Meanwhile, the city budget relies on VGT revenue that many are
skeptical will materialize to the levels necessary.
There are real questions that should be addressed to determine whether with the
rules City Council will ultimately pass regarding VGT approvals in the city
and the $4 million that Bally's will stop paying, there's a net gain for the city.
Not just for this year, but when we're halfway through the year and barely
to the point of operation, but for years to come.
To be clear, AFSCME's interest in this issue is about revenue and
funding city services, not about choosing sides between gaming
interests. But as it currently stands, we're uncomfortable completely
removing VGTs from the budget and ensuring there's a budget gap that doesn't
currently exist. It seems to us there's probably agreement
from both on different sides of the debate about whether allowing airport lounges
where slots could be played could exist.
There's also agreement about making sure city services are preserved for residents.
So I hope going forward, we have a conversation about the facts and about the
long-term plans for revenue, because as you know from the budget documents,
VGTs are a small portion of the budget, and there's a much broader discussion to be
had, perhaps in another forum, about the city's plans for ensuring the
FY26 budget hits the necessary marks. Thank you.
Next up is Javier
LeBron.
Javier?
Would you check to see if they're outside, and I'll put them to the side for now.
Next, Bob McDermott.
This is what we're going to do. I'm going to go through the whole list.
Would you raise your hand if you're here? Pat Thor.
John Bosca.
Okay. John, why don't you go next?
Good morning. My name is John Bosca, as you just heard.
I raised my hand, and yes, I am.
I just want you to know that workforce development is a very
key piece for the entities that I'm involved with and
that I volunteer for. The first one is Neighbors of River West.
I've been a volunteer for 30 years there and seen all kinds of development,
construction, as well as hotel jobs.
The second is volunteer as the chair of the Casino Advisory
Council.
Another thing that I'm also involved with is the, and was,
part of the setup of the 1901 CIC with
Jerry Lewis, and I'm going to come back to that in a minute.
Because I've been involved as a volunteer this long, I want you to
know that it's important that everybody
has a stake. Everybody has a
stake in this, especially those who have the opportunity to get
jobs. Let me say this. As part of the
27th Ward,
there is, as in Chicago, there is an
east side of the ward and the west side of the ward.
In the middle is the 1901, a project that is getting
started. The jobs that were expected, and are
expected, and a way to connect the west side of the ward
with the east side of the ward, is through job training,
job enforcement, and union jobs. Something that
every one of the entities that I volunteer with
is important, too.
Anything that would come in, such as VGTs, would be
diluting that opportunity.
Chicago's based on the philosophy of make no small plans.
Unfortunately, what we keep doing is going after those who have made
big plans, and we're trying to dilute those, as we're doing right
now with the casino. Unfortunately, that's a
tragedy, and we should be doing better for that.
Lastly is this.
It's been mentioned, and I've heard the name Jerry Lewis here.
I want you to know that that's a guy who was in the arena, and you know what
I mean by that. Jerry spent his time-- I met Jerry
over 20 years ago in the village of Riverdale doing development with Peter
Holsten in the redevelopment of Pacesetter.
In addition to that, the programs that we put into place there together,
as my general contractor, we ultimately did
here in the Chicago and in the 27th Ward.
Those programs have continued to carry on, and the spirit of that
has been carried on.
None of the VGTs address any of that type of spirit and
job force improvement and development.
I know Jerry wasn't perfect, as none of us are.
I want to give my last few seconds to remembrance of Jerry.
Thank you. Next up is Pat Dorr.
Good afternoon, members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Pat Dorr, on behalf of the Hospitality Business Association of Chicago, a chamber
of commerce for bars and restaurants, VGT eligible
establishments across Chicago and in every ward of the city.
I will try and be brief because I know you have a packed agenda.
We provided written comment to the chairman yesterday to the committee.
I have copies if any members of the committee want it.
I would first off like to join in, and adopt the
excellent and nuanced viewpoint of the spokeswoman from AFSCME
because I think she made a lot of sense about the fiscal picture facing this city,
and facing my small businesses of bars and restaurants in every ward.
Specifically, I am sure, and I guess we've also seen in the Tribune editorial
pages today, Bally's is going to claim yet again that they cannot
survive with VGTs and locally owned bars and restaurants
miles away from their casino, either the temporary or the permanent
one. This is simply-- It's
hogwash. Every other casino, except for Rivers
Casino, has VGT terminals around it, and many of those
casinos do better on a per-player revenue than Bally's temporary
casino does. Aurora, where there are hundreds of VGT terminals,
is about to open a glorious new hotel casino.
I don't think they would've made that massive investment in a land-based casino if
they were worried about it. Rockford is one of the biggest cities in
Illinois for VGT revenue, propping up their bars and restaurants in
a tough economy and every day, so they can invest in their businesses.
Rockford is doing far better than Bally's is, despite VGT being
everywhere around that casino.
VGT is not a threat to a well-run casino, and I will not take my
time pointing out yet again that Bally's marketing has not perhaps
been as robust or as compelling as their competitors in the suburbs in
northwest Indiana.
But we also can't watch them claim that this city
allowing VGT, as this council voted to do in December, is an existential
threat. There's no evidence. Across this state,
very successful casinos are surrounded by locally owned bars and restaurants with
VGT.
Whatever comes up today, and I know we're not voting, I am happy to
speak with any member of this committee, any member of this council, and show you
in depth how we have lost one-third of our tavern
licensees over the last eight years.
We are flat over the last decade in the number of restaurant consumption on-premise
incidental activity licenses. We are a stagnant to sinking hospitality
industry because we have to compete with suburbs that allow VGT while Chicago
hasn't.
We've got-
Help us help the city and help the border wards by bringing
VGT-supported bars and restaurants to this city, and
before the end of the year, now that the Illinois Gaming Board has started to
approve them. Thank you for your time.
I appreciate your help in supporting our locally owned small businesses.
Thank you. Acknowledging Alderman Curtis for the quorum.
Next up is Tiwon Sims.
Also acknowledging Alderwoman Coleman for the-- Alderman Coleman for the
quorum.
Good morning, committee. Good morning.
So my name is Tiwon Sims, spelled T-I-W-O-N S-I-M-S.
And I wish I could speak to the issues that everybody are addressing,
but especially the Jerry Lewis, the 67-year-old contractor that was murdered
right on Madison Street, right-- What?
A few blocks away from the 1901 Project, a $7
billion project, but do you know the percentage that Jerry was
going to get? 100 something million dollars.
7% of that,
and he was shot down in the street like a dog.
But the gentleman spoke to his efforts and his legacy,
which is a truth, but that's a truth that's now wiped out.
So what happens to the workforce for those foundational Black Americans
and those women,
or those minority contractors, as you all call them, here in the city of
Chicago?
But like I said, I'd like to speak to that, but I'm here to speak to an issue that
took place yesterday on 119th. What you all call them teen
takeovers, but I realize that this is manufactured because as I was
involved in it, as I had to pull children off of
children from melee after melee after melee, and I was the
only one maced by the CPD.
There was no deterrence. There was not one
uniformed officer in the middle of any of these melees, and yet
they herded all these children out of the back of that building
over to another park where they attacked the gentleman, beat him to the ground, and
robbed him.
All of this took place under the watchful eye of our public
safety.
But this is what we deserve as foundational Black Americans, Mr. Hall.
Right?
Because you represent the Southland.
Stacy,
you represent the Southland. Curtis, you represent the Southland, right?
But this is what we deserve.
No job training because now if we had job training for the youth out there,
then they'd be employed. That 25,000 youth jobs that Mayor
Johnson so
expounded on, it's all BS.
Because if there was 25,000 jobs, there wouldn't be so many kids in the streets
at those hours
able to participate in what you all call these teen takeovers.
Let's make it make sense. But we the ones just got to-- Oh, Mr.
Robinson, hey, how's it going? But these are our representatives as
foundational Black Americans,
and we get no representation.
Nobody to defend us, nobody to speak up for us,
nobody to talk to job training, to nothing.
And let me once again ask the question,
Chairman, the inequitable treatment that foundational Black Americans are
getting here concerning workforce, has there been any provision,
a five-year plan,
something, anything?
Because as you see the streets of Chicago, and Chicago is suffering under the
weight of this inadequacy.
Help me to understand.
Thank you, Mr. Speights.
Alderman Hall amends his Rule 59 motion to include Alderperson
Gutierrez.
Seeing no opposition, that'll be so ordered.
There's one, but the rest, I think, are nodding in agreement, so I'll take that as
an aye on that. Next up is Bob McDermott.
Good morning. I'm Bob McDermott. I represent Timothy O'Toole's
and restaurants in Chicagoland. We've begun to get
ready for the gaming that's coming, the VGT, to Chicagoland at
great expense to ourselves, and getting ready to open
this,
and we're ready to get the ball rolling.
And if we get held up again, how many times we got to keep getting it?
We're the 11th hour. I think this should pass and move forward.
Thank you. Next up is Denita Sanders.
Good afternoon. I'm Denita Sanders from the Chi-North Lawndale Chamber of Commerce.
I am the Chief Executive Officer, and I am here to speak on behalf of small
businesses that are the heartbeat of our communities.
The chamber is committed to ensuring transparency, access, and real
opportunity. We really appreciate our relationship with Lucky Lincoln and the video
gaming industry, and their commitment to meeting our businesses personally face to
face because we have yet to see Bally's on the forefront to meet with our business
and actually explain to them the opportunity that may be at hand.
From our data analysis that we performed over a year, it shows our small businesses
are ready and able to grow if given a fair shot.
We look at this relationship with the gaming committee as filling a gap insurance
that the city has not been able to do for our small businesses over a time period.
That gap insurance is the opportunity to have capital come in for small businesses
who fund our communities. When we have block clubs in the Black communities in the
west side and the far south side, those are our small businesses.
That isn't Bally's. When we have children that can't go to prom, those were our
small businesses paying those bills.
They were putting together hard-earned capital from
their access from the projects that they put together with no city entity helping
them, no outside resources. So with Lucky Lincoln and the video
gaming committee coming in with this opportunity for our businesses, we had an
excitement. And then to have this shuffle of what you guys are doing of personal
interest over politics versus going after constituency,
we got to take the personal out of politics, and we got to make sure we work on the
best interest of constituency. And in my community, they are asking
for this opportunity because we see in 2025, over
2,100 jobs had left our communities in the city of
Chicago. That's from restaurants and opportunities that can go into our
communities. And we also have to stop that when the minority Black community
decides to make a decision to join a process, that we now move the
goalpost, that now we don't even want to have tobacco and liquor licenses in
those communities. We have to take the personal out of politics, and we got
to prioritize what the businesses and constituencies are telling us every
single day. And as a chamber of commerce, being an advocate for these particular
businesses, their voices are not being heard, and we ask that you listen to the
gaming committee, specifically the ones that are actually doing the work boots to
the ground, and coming out and meeting us in our Black communities and talking to
our businesses and answering the tough questions because this is not an easy
relationship to create And we've seen them do the work.
I have yet to see Bally's on the ground in my community that has been impoverished
in lack of tax investment or any investment.
I have yet to see them boost to the ground or reach out to our chambers or
neighboring chambers, and I've been in constant communication with all of them, and
I'm pure representation as a lifelong resident, taxpayer, citizen, and
business owner from our community.
Please let the people from the community and the businesses from the community be
their own voice and take the personal out of politics.
Next up is Andre Smith.
First, let me say thank you all for giving me the opportunity to express myself.
Just for the record, I'm not paid
by either side. I don't work for either side.
I don't have a script.
I am Andre Smith, the CEO of Chicago Against Violence.
I am Andre Smith, the vice president for every resident that
reside in Washington Park.
I am Andre Smith that owned six barber and beauty
shops. And let me tell you about being a business owner.
Sometime it was slow,
but I had a pool table in my shop,
and that pool table brought in about $600 a
month or every two weeks.
That was in the 1990s.
And let me tell you what that $600 did for me and my
family at the time.
It made
me be able to take food home.
It made me be able to pay the light bill at the shop.
It made me be able to pay the rent at the shop.
So, what am I saying?
For a company to come in, or entity to come
in, and say, "I want to make a deal that is
just me and nobody else,"
that's a bad deal.
Competition is good.
And if somebody's going to run you out of business, then you're already out of
business.
There's competition in boxing, competition in baseball.
Even now, we're about to run back for alderman
mayor. You're going to have competition.
So when somebody say, "I don't want no competition, I want to monopolize
the situation," that's not good business.
If you can have competition, so can Bally's.
So I'm in favor of the video
gambling. Because I was a business owner.
Bally's never came to my community.
You all know I'm involved. I haven't heard of Bally's coming
in to talk about anything in our community, of us working
with them.
So let me say this.
When I go into the businesses, the restaurants,
and it's three families there,
how are they going to survive?
When you go into the liquor stores or the gas station, can you look at the
owners and tell them that they ain't going to have another way of source
of income?
So I'm asking you, I'm pleading with you, to put
yourself in that position as a business owner in the
community,
and you need help.
You see our downtown businesses are empty, but we still have some in
our community. Let's help them survive by
allowing video gambling as another source of income.
Thank you, sir. Next up is Kimmy Jordan.
Good morning.
Chair Rodriguez, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to
speak with you today. My name is Kimmy Jordan. I live in the 16th Ward.
I work as a EVS attendant at Bally's Chicago casino,
and I am a proud member of UNITE HERE Local 1.
I am here to support the ordinance to
repeal video gaming terminal legalization in Chicago.
Our jobs are good jobs. With the support of many of you and the labor
movement, our union worked with Bally's to make these some of the best
union jobs in the city. Our jobs at Bally's offer good wages,
affordable quality union healthcare, a legal plan with lawyers to provide
it at little or no cost for legal assistance in our personal lives, a
defined
benefit pension, and a DOL Registered Apprenticeship
Training Fund. You should feel great about what we have achieved.
The decision to legalize VGTs in Chicago as part of the last budget
could undermine that achievement. The data is clear.
These terminals eliminate good paying jobs in casinos like mine, in
casino jobs like mine. At Bally's, it could mean hundreds fewer
Chicagoans bringing families sustaining paychecks and quality healthcare
coverage back to every ward in the neighborhood
in the city. It's not worth it. The committee has the opportunity
today to undo the mistake before it's too late.
Please vote yes in this ordinance. Thank you.
Next up is Mauricio Cifuentes.
We have
25th Ward Alderman
Cecilia Lopez for quorum as a non-committee member. Go ahead, Mr. Cifuentes.
Thank you. Good morning.
My name is Mauricio Cifuentes, and I'm here to present an alternative
view about this issue. I'm a licensed clinical social
worker, and I'm the director of programs of an agency called Cicero
Family Service, which has been doing
prevention through education on problem gambling for the state
of Illinois in mostly the Latine communities.
And beyond a business perspective, I want to
present the mental health perspective on this topic of
gambling, and in particular, the expansion of gambling.
Gambling is a reality, and I'm not here to fight
against that. It brings a lot of money that municipalities
need. It brings jobs, which are very useful
and
good for the communities. At the same time, there are a
couple of facts which are important to take into account when
legislatures are considering this matter.
On one hand, the more exposure people
have to gambling opportunities, the higher
the risk for developing the addiction to
gambling.
In the Latine community, for example, and this is based on
a study conducted by the state of Illinois four years
ago, when Latine individuals become
frequent gamblers, understood as people who
bet five or more times in one year, their
risk to develop problem gambling issues
doubles.
And when an individual has problem gambling
issues, their risk to commit suicide
is five times higher than
among the average individual. So there is a
direct correlation between increasing
exposure to gambling opportunities and the risk
of committing suicide.
Now, when you are talking about expanding
opportunities into restaurants and bars, I
want to present two additional considerations.
One thing is, if you are a family and you go to a
restaurant, who's going to make sure
that children are not gambling? Is the
parents' responsibility? Is the owners of the place'
responsibility? You may say minors cannot
gamble. Who is going to enforce that rule?
And for you to know from the mental health perspective, children
are much more vulnerable to
develop gambling addiction. And if you go to a bar, you would
say, "Oh, those are adults." Well, the research is very
solid. People who have alcohol and other
issues present also gambling problems.
Thank you. And our last speaker is Carl Gutierrez.
Hello, my name is Carl Gutierrez, representing the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
I'm going to keep my remarks very brief and simply restate what was provided
to the committee chair, which was a circulation of the letter
that we provided to the licensing committee back in April, which was a reiteration
of our position from as far back as September.
Which was, in brief, let's get this right.
Our position was the same then as it was in April as it is now.
Let's get this right. As stated by one of the previous
commentators,
this issue is complicated. We want to make sure that we get this right and
perhaps in forums that appropriately address
the issues that are at hand.
That is our position. Want to reiterate that. Thank you.
A man and his word. We're going to recess for two minutes to get the meeting
started in City Council Chambers, and we'll be back promptly.
The committee stands in recess.
Give it about 30 seconds for folks to come in, and we'll get started.
All right. The Committee on Workforce Development will now come back to
order. Seeing as public comment is now over, we move
on to the next agenda item.
I want to thank all those who shared their opinions on the matter
in public comment.
Today, we have a well-rounded panel.
I'm providing time for brief comments from several of these panelists before we
open the floor to questions.
The first speaker is going to be Commissioner
of BACP, Ivan Capofali, followed
by Sam Toia of the Illinois Restaurant Association, followed
by Ivan Fernandez, director of IGOMA,
followed by Carmen Rossi, followed by Steven Maher from
Action CFO for
City of Chicago. Is it Action? Did I get that right?
You can introduce yourself at the appropriate time.
Karen Kent will be next president of Unite
Here, followed by Mr. Christopher Jewett, Senior Vice President
of Bally's Corporation. We also have a couple of other city
officials here to answer aldermanic questions.
So to get us started, Ivan Capifali.
Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, Chairman Rodriguez, Vice Chair
Gutierrez, and members of the committee.
It's tougher.
With me today is Chris Jessup, Assistant Commissioner of Internal
Governmental Affairs for BACP.
My name is Ivan Capifali, and I'm the Commissioner for the Chicago Department of
Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, also known as BACP.
I'm here today to discuss the city's video gaming terminal, or
VGT ordinance, and the significant implementation concerns
identified by the department since its passage in
January.
Following passage of the ordinance, BACP reviewed the regulatory,
operational, and enforcement requirements necessary to
administer a VGT program in Chicago.
That review revealed substantial challenges and costs
that raised serious concerns about the city's ability to
effectively implement the ordinance without significant new
resources.
Most notably, BACP was not involved in developing the ordinance,
despite being assigned key implementation and enforcement
responsibilities. As a result, the department assessment
occurred after passage when we began evaluating what
would be required to establish an entirely new
regulatory framework.
Our review found that implementation would require a new licensing
oversight structure, including application review, compliance
monitoring, inspections, complaint investigations, enforcement
actions, administrative hearings, and coordination with multiple city
departments and state agencies.
BACP identified more than 3,300 locations that could
potentially qualify for a VGT license under the ordinance,
requiring the department to prepare for a significant expansion of
its regulatory responsibilities.
The ordinance also creates significant operational
and logistical obligations. BACP would be responsible for
ongoing compliance monitoring and enforcement
in a new and highly regulated industry.
Enforcement actions involving non-compliant gaming terminals would require
transportation, storage, inventory management, and
chain of custody procedures for seized equipment.
The city currently lacks dedicated facilities and resources
to support these functions, and these duties would divert personnel and
resources from the department's existing responsibilities, regulating
thousands of businesses throughout Chicago.
In addition to the administrative burden, the ordinance limits
the city's ability to fully utilize its licensing authority
to address local concerns. There are several areas where
additional local licensing standards and safeguards will typically be considered,
including operational requirements,
location-based restrictions, spacing considerations, and other
measures designed to address neighborhood impacts.
As drafted, BACP is responsible for licensing, regulating,
and enforcing VGT operations while lacking many of the tools
traditionally available to establish local standards,
address community concerns, and ensure effective oversight.
Based on the department's evaluation, the challenges associated with implementing
this ordinance have been substantial and have placed
considerable strain on city operations.
For that reason, BACP believes that we should carefully consider
whether the cost, administrative burdens, limitations on
local regulatory authority, and operational impacts associated with
this program outweigh its anticipated benefits.
Thank you for your time.
Acknowledging Alderman Beale for the quorum, and then Non-Committee
Member Villegas. And we have
Chairman Irvin online, and we'll apply
him to the Rule 59 without objection.
Next up, Sam Toya from the Illinois Restaurant Association.
Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Rodriguez and members of the committee.
Again, I'm Sam Toya, President and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant
Association. On behalf of the restaurant and hospitality community,
I'm here today to ask you to support video gaming in the city of
Chicago. The hospitality industry continues to struggle.
In the first half of 2025 alone, nearly 500 restaurants
closed their doors.
This results in thousands of lost jobs for members of our community and
empty storefronts all across the city.
Again, empty storefronts all across the city.
Restaurants face increased costs for labor, food, rent,
insurance, utility, taxes, and fees.
And as costs continue to increase, restaurants and bars need
alternative sources of revenue to avoid raising prices.
Video gaming is a proven revenue generator for restaurants.
According to a report from FTI Consulting, in
2022, Illinois generated an estimated
$1.2 billion in revenue for state and local
governments through video gaming.
$1.2 billion in revenue, and all without including
Chicago. Video gaming is not a silver bullet, but it
is a practical, regulated, again, regulated tool that can
help local operators keep their doors open.
It allows hospitality operators to offer an attractive source of
entertainment to their customers,
boosting revenue and creating jobs.
It offsets increased labor costs, paid leave, food costs,
rent, et cetera, all while allowing owners to avoid
more price increases.
Video gaming also provides more local neighborhood entertainment
options, keeping our residents entertained without losing their
business to the city outside of Chicago.
Our city has 17 wards that border over 25
municipalities, and of these municipalities, only
16 in Illinois do not allow video gaming.
This puts restaurants and bars in border wards at a competitive
disadvantage.
The legalization of video gaming in the city of Chicago benefits each
of our 77 communities and 50 wards.
It brings more people to local bars and restaurants and gives
our neighborhood small businesses a much needed source of
revenue. Legalized video gaming won't turn restaurants
and bars into casinos. It will simply give residents an additional
entertainment option that doesn't require them to cross the border.
Video gaming could help revive Chicago's restaurant industry at
a time when owning and operating a restaurant is exceptionally difficult.
It could provide an opportunity for businesses to expand their revenue
sources and add a new source of entertainment for visitors,
all while preserving jobs.
For these reasons, I ask you to keep video gaming legal in
the city of Chicago to help our neighborhood restaurant and bars stay
afloat. Thank you.
Thank you. Next up is Ivan Fernandez, director of
IGOMA. And if you can, tell us what that is.
I will. Thank you, Chairman. Members of the committee, thank you for the
opportunity to address you today.
I'm Ivan Fernandez, the other Ivan on the panel.
I represent the Illinois Gaming Machine Operators Association.
We are a statewide business trade
association, and we represent the manufacturers, suppliers,
distributors, and terminal operators of the Illinois video gaming
industry. I'm here with Sam as well
to urge you to support and not roll back video gaming in the city of
Chicago.
With regards to video gaming, the industry has operated successfully across
Illinois since 2012. Today, more than 8,700
licensed establishments participate in this industry, supporting over
41,000 jobs statewide.
That is not a pilot program. That is not an experiment.
That's over a decade of proven results.
It's in every corner of the state, from Rockford to Carbondale, from
Cicero to East St. Louis.
The only major gap on our map is the city of Chicago.
This model works because of its structure.
Illinois got this one right.
It built a three-tiered system
where terminal operators, local licensed establishments,
and state and local governments
are tied together through a revenue-sharing formula that benefits
each of them.
Both the state and municipalities draw tax revenue from
every dollar generated.
For Chicago, that means it doesn't have to choose between economic
opportunities for small business and revenue for city services.
Under this system, it gets both.
Today, over 1,100 municipalities statewide already
experience this.
It's time that Chicago does, too.
And that revenue sharing matters
right now in your neighborhoods. As Sam mentioned, across the city, ask
any of the hospitality business owners what their margins look like,
and for the overwhelming majority,
they're not good.
Every day, they face increases. Minimum wage, food costs,
insurance, property taxes, they're all going
up. These small local businesses are not asking for a
handout or for all licensed and regulated local
competition to be outlawed.
They're asking for the same opportunity that has been available for over
a decade at their counterparts in Berwyn, Elmwood
Park, and Evergreen Park.
One that has helped them remain open, keep their employees, and
reinvest in their businesses.
The revenue from video gaming doesn't get funneled to
shareholders of a multinational gaming conglomerate.
No, it returns to the single address where it was
generated. It stays on the block and in the
neighborhood. It pays for a new walk-in cooler, an extra
part-time hire, and a roof repair that's been deferred for
years.
Today, veteran organizations and fraternal clubs operate on
razor-thin budgets.
Their video gaming revenue is the difference between funding a scholarship
program or cutting it,
between keeping the lights on for a community event or closing their doors
permanently.
This committee has heard arguments that neighborhood gaming threatens the casino.
I'd ask you to weigh that against this fact.
Bally's anti-competition protectionist position threatens
the future of local hospitality businesses in every neighborhood across
this city.
As incredibly successful as Illinois video gaming has been across the state,
it has not caused one single Illinois casino to close.
In fact, there are more casinos today than before we launched in
2012.
Right now in Aurora,
one of them is cutting the ribbon at a grand opening for a $360
million hotel and casino.
And just like the other 15 casinos not located in Chicago,
it's surrounded by neighborhood gaming.
Chicago's small businesses have waited long enough.
I respectfully ask this committee to consider their futures and permit them
to compete on equal footing with the rest of Illinois.
Thank you, Chairman.
Yes. Thank you. And our first couple speakers have been averaging two and a half
minutes. Appreciate it. Carmen Rossi, you're up.
I'll try
I told him three minutes.
Good morning, Chairman, members of the committee. My name is Carmen Rossi.
I am here today to testify in my capacity as an executive board
member of the Illinois Restaurant Association.
In addition, I own several businesses, many in hospitality, and
employ hundreds of folks in Chicago.
Now, I imagine there will be a lot of talk of numbers today based on the
speculation and replacement value of core budgeted
dollars.
Now, with a scratch piece of paper, and some muddled math, you can
dole out rounded number projections
for VGT eligible small businesses, and what
that could mature to in fees and revenue
share. What's not going to show up on that scratch paper, however, is the
neighborhood business that fills a vacant storefront.
You're not going to be able to see an otherwise abandoned block light
up, a business stay open through a tough year, and
all the employees that can further support their lives and the lives of their
family members. What won't be on that piece of paper is the emerging
Chicagoan seeking to start a business and adding this line
item into their pro forma opportunity. Now let's talk about the numbers.
The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability cites that in fiscal
year '25, the average terminal generated
$171.58 per day in
net terminal income. Now, a third of that is going back to the
establishment address. That's roughly $20,352
per year per terminal. But this is not a fringe program.
Nearly 75% of Illinois VGT establishments
operated the maximum six terminals per space in a given
year. That's about $120,000
per year to the bottom line for a business owner.
That's rent, that's wage increases, that's
reinvestment into their business.
Now, there's one casino license in the third largest city
in the United States. There will likely be one casino license
forever. The barrier of entry for
participation in the video gaming VGT revenue
opportunity is low for any ambitious Chicagoan who wants
to open a business or consider video gaming use in their
establishment. Such use is not a question of equity or
finance and access to capital. After all, it is the terminal
operators who pay for the machines to be in the businesses.
This is real access, real revenue, real
opportunities.
The policy question is not whether Bally's prefers exclusivity.
Of course it does. The policy question is whether the city
should deny a identified, struggling sect of the
industry of Chicago neighborhood businesses that need a
legal revenue stream, and whether city council should
reverse its own course of law and give up on local
tax revenue. All of this in order to protect one operator from
competition it simply has not proven would cause material harm.
This is a workforce hearing. I testify today
concerning the workforce of hundreds of Chicago-based
small businesses, representing thousands of Chicago
employees and jobs throughout all 77 communities.
Thank you. Next up is acting CFO, City of Chicago, Steven Maher.
Thank you, Chair. Good morning, Chairman Ruiz, Vice
Chair Gutierrez,
and members of the Committee on Workforce Development. My name is Steven Maher.
I'm the acting CFO of the City of Chicago.
I am pleased to be with you today and to answer questions you may have related to
the ordinance on the agenda for today's subject matter hearing.
On June 29th of 2022, the City of Chicago and Bally's executed the
Host Community Agreement.
I will refer to the Host Community Agreement as the HCA from time to time during
today's meeting.
The HCA has been, and continues to be, publicly available on the city's website,
and describes the obligations, representations, and other commitments
between the city and Bally's related to the casino project.
The ordinance before you today would, among other things, repeal chapter
4-155 of the city's municipal code.
That chapter and section of the city's muni code authorized video gaming terminals
citywide.
The commitments described in the HCA are at risk if an ordinance
repealing Chapter 4-155 is not passed.
The office of the CFO has consistently noted the following key considerations
about video gaming terminals over the past year.
First,
video gaming terminal legalization implementation would impact the
HCA.
Second, the Bally's casino project is a $1.7 billion
investment in the city's downtown area and a major economic
development expected to generate hundreds of millions of tax revenues
to the city once stabilized.
Moreover, the lion's share of those dollars are dedicated, pursuant
to state law, to the city's police and fire pension funds.
Third,
the city earns roughly four and a half times as much revenue per
dollar spent on casino slot machines than on video gaming terminals.
Tax revenues from video gaming terminals will be offset by losses
of casino tax revenues.
The expected net tax revenue is negative.
Is negative or only marginally positive in the near term
in both the base case as well as the conservative case
analyses conducted by CCA last year.
In CCA's conservative case,
net tax revenue is negative each and every year through
2035.
Fourth, video gaming terminal legalization increases
social and public safety concerns
Because of the expected significant expansion of brick-and-mortar gambling.
For example, in January of this year, the "Sun-Times" published an article
describing a significant increase in burglaries at businesses offering video
gaming terminals around Chicago and throughout the state.
Fifth, video gaming terminal implementation would have
uncertain
or unpredictable impacts on the entertainment character of the city's
neighborhoods.
The ordinance being discussed at today's subject matter hearing would also
authorize the office of the CFO to negotiate and enter into an amended
agreement with Bally's to, among other initiatives, make
commercially reasonable efforts to provide training opportunities to city
residents, exercise best efforts to work with city colleges to support development
of a new hospitality program,
offer advancement opportunities to casino personnel, and offer entry-level
positions to individuals facing employment barriers.
The
HGA already includes a number of workforce goals and commitments that we're well
aware of.
This ordinance offers the opportunity to further those
workforce benefits.
And
this ordinance reaffirms the city's commitment to the success of large economic
development projects,
establish a stable gaming market, and reduce
monetary, public safety, and potential reputational risk to the city.
We look forward to your questions and working with you. Thank you, Chair.
Next up, we have Karen Kent.
Chair Rodriguez-
One second, Karen. Let's get you a mic.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Chair Rodriguez, members of the committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
My name is Karen Kent. I'm the president of UNITE HERE Local 1,
Chicago's hospitality workers union.
The workers we represent are immigrants, women, people of color,
Chicagoans. We represent cooks, servers, bartenders,
baristas, and housekeepers across the city.
Today, I'm here on behalf of our members working at Bally's Casino.
With me today are
some of our members who work at Bally's Temporary Casino and members of
our union's executive board.
Hospitality work has been part of my story as well.
Before I joined the union,
I worked as a banquet server and bartender in hotels and casinos.
I learned to speak Spanish in the back of the house with my coworkers.
I spent years in the union organizing casino workers
in Indiana, Illinois, and Nevada.
We are here today because our union has worked side by side with many of you to
bring good casino jobs to Chicago,
and we are deeply concerned that many jobs will be erased with the introduction of
VGTs here.
I want to help this committee to fully understand what is at stake and to have
pride in the jobs you helped create.
150 UNITE HERE members have good union jobs at the temporary
casino. Our union represents slot attendants, bartenders,
barbacks, servers, cooks, dishwashers, and more.
87% of those workers are Chicago
residents, representing 43 of
our 50 wards. Bally's workers have already won a
contract that exceeds our citywide standards, and some
examples of what workers there can
expect are wages of
$55,000 annually for EVS attendants,
like Kimi Jordan, the staff who clean guest areas in the
casinos.
Many of our members
haven't always had access to
good healthcare. Some have lived without medical and dental care
for years. These members are now covered by a UNITE HERE health
plan. They pay $0 a month for individual coverage,
$30 a month for a family,
and are seen at many hospitals throughout the city.
Kimi has talked about winning a pension since we bargained our first contract
together many years ago. Today, Kimi can expect a pension when she
retires from Bally's Casino. Working for 10 years with
no change to the current hourly contribution, which I don't think will happen.
We'll change it, but Kimi would earn roughly $600
a month upon retirement if nothing changed and she kept
working.
Most hospitality workers in Chicago don't have the same.
They earn far less with no guarantee of health coverage or retirement
benefits. Unless Chicago repeals--
Sorry.
Unless Chicago repeals a decision to legalize VGTs, there will be hundreds
fewer jobs at Bally's permanent casinos.
Detractors may say that won't happen, VGTs don't compete with
the casino. But those of us in hospitality know what will
happen. We've seen it before. There'll be a slow bleed of jobs at
Bally's. Union slot attendants will lose hours, then days, then one
job, then another. Fewer players mean fewer guests ordering drinks.
Bartenders will go. When guests are scarce, restaurants close earlier.
The dishwashers go one by one. It'll be a silent erosion,
but we know it will come.
My union, UNITE HERE, has represented workers in casinos across the
country for decades. I recently requested some information on
VGTs and casino job loss from
our IU's research team. Much to my chagrin,
they consider Illinois a cautionary tale.
We previously sent a letter with this information to the Committee on License
and Consumer Protection.
You should all now have that in your inbox.
And nothing of what they said is based on
Bally's numbers, which is a term I've used here.
It's all based on publicly available data from the
IGB
There's still time to make it right.
I'll let all of you read that, but there's still time to make it right.
The repeal of VGTs is the right way for the city to keep that commitment and
restore the hope for many hospitality workers. Thank you.
Thank you. And last we have Christopher Jewett, Senior Vice President of Bally's.
I guess almost good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you, Chairman Rodriguez and committee members. My name's Christopher Jewett.
I'm the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for Bally's and also
the Chief Development Officer for Bally's Chicago.
I've been involved in the Chicago project since day one, dating back to
the RFP days in 2021. I'm here to urge you to
consider repealing the legalization of video gaming terminals within the City of
Chicago, which was passed in the fiscal year '26 budget.
Now, I know that many of you voted for that budget with the best of intentions.
Your priority was to be responsible stewards of the city's tax dollars.
Many of you put in hard work to solve a difficult situation and pass a budget.
I can imagine none of you made that tough decision thinking you would do harm to
the city's fiscal position, present and future.
The legalization of VGTs passed as part of that budget
puts that agreement between city and Bally's at risk.
Most importantly, it will hurt the city's finances for years to come.
For nearly 30 years, Chicago sought
legislation
to authorize a casino. We were proud to help complete that
effort and enter into the host community agreement, which benefited the city and
its residents and contributed to multiple credit rating
agency upgrades. VGTs are a step backward from that
progress.
The HCA agreement contains enormous benefits to Chicago residents,
including just a few examples. We made a $40 million upfront
payment at signing.
We made annual $4 million impact fee payments.
We're required to have a minimum capital investment, which is a defined
term, of $1.34 million. We're going to spend north of
1.7.
The creation of approximately 3,000 good paying union jobs,
coupled with the most aggressive workforce diversity, supplier diversity, and
community investment commitments the city's ever seen to provide
opportunities to your residents, including many who live in underserved
communities.
Here's a few stats from Bally's Chicago's nearly 750
current team members.
First, more than 80% of our team is diverse, compared
to our commitment in the HCA of 60%.
74% of our team members are City of Chicago residents, compared to a
commitment of 50%.
And 27% of our team members today reside in socially
economic disadvantaged areas, with our goal being
15.5%. Additionally, I think it's important to
note that Bally's Chicago currently has more than 1,000
City of Chicago residents and more than 1,500
Illinois residents who are equity owners in the project that this will
directly affect.
Bally's entered the HCA and made these commitments on the premise that the city
would adhere to its longstanding agreement to prohibit VGTs.
Had we known that within just a few years this body would reverse course and allow
an alternative form of gaming that breaches the agreement, we would
never agreed to the numerous commitments, all of which we've held
up.
I can assure you that other corporations around the country and world are watching
the treatment of our relationship and will take note when determining to bring
business and jobs here. If Chicago's
reputation becomes that a heavily negotiated, legally binding
contract is not worth the paper it's written on, that sends a strong negative
message that Chicago's not a good place to do business.
Businesses must be able to trust that Chicago will honor its agreements.
The legalization of VGTs sent a deeply negative signal to
us and to the entire business world.
It's not too late to change that, though.
We do share your desire to avoid a budget shortfall, which is why we have proposed
substituting the revenue you have anticipated from VGTs with revenue
from airport slot machines.
These slots are exclusively provided under our license via state
legislation.
We believe we can move quickly on this plan with the city's and the council's
support.
Each terminal
at O'Hare and one at Midway can support one lounge.
We believe one lounge can generate approximately $5 million in actual gaming and
admission taxes, which go directly to the city.
This alone can replace the revenue in question.
Let us now talk about the actual substance of the material breach of
contract and implications for the city.
First, the HCA included a commitment to create 3,000 permanent
good paying union jobs with aggressive workforce diversity goals.
We staff our casinos to demand.
Now, I've heard here today that there's no effect on casinos, or we can't prove
that there is by VGTs.
From 2012
to 2024, existing casinos in Illinois experienced a total revenue
reduction of 37% since the legalization of
VGTs. This is a fact.
This can be found online on the Illinois Gaming Board
website. We expect a reduction of more than 1,000 jobs
due to VGTs in a worst case scenario.
In addition, we committed to pay substantial upfront annual fees to the city
and make significant investments.
We have never wavered in honoring or and
exceeding those commitments.
The city's budget contemplates approximately 3,300 eligible VGT
establishments, each which could host up to six VGTs.
This means a total of potentially up to 19,800 new
terminals unaffiliated-
Mr. Jewett-
With Bally's
... we're getting there. You have more time as well to answer questions, so.
Great.
Yeah.
I'll wrap it up.
Look, authorization of VGTs at this scale, it's a permanent transformation of the
city's gaming landscape.
Polling shows that by a double digit margin, Chicagoans and
voters oppose VGTs, with 33% of
Chicagoans supporting and 47% being opposed.
Thank you for your time.
All right. Thank you. We'll move on to aldermanic questions.
We have two aldermen present that are chairs of committees with
significant jurisdictional adjacency to this.
So I'm going to start with Alderwoman Silverstein.
Alderwoman, are you on?
I'm here. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Go right ahead.
Thank you.
Alderman Deborah Silverstein, Chairman of the License Committee,
and I would first like to say that I very much oppose
this ordinance.
VGTs were voted on in our
last budget, and the city is currently relying on that revenue
to make sure we have the numbers in our budget, and
I'm very strongly against this.
It's funny, I've been listening to a lot of the
testimonies here today, and so many of you have
mentioned the License Committee.
VGTs, every piece of legislation that
has passed,
has gone through the License Committee.
And, I work very closely with the Commissioner
Capafalo, and I'm just wondering why he chose
to put this ordinance through Workforce Development as
opposed to the License Committee, where it belongs.
Commissioner?
Well, just for clarification, today's a subject matter hearing, right?
We're not discussing the ordinance.
That's-
We could have had a subject matter hearing in License Committee.
And I'd like to, if I can pass that question to
the Department of Law.
Actually, I'd like to hear from you first, Commissioner.
Point of clarification.
Wait, I think we have a question. It's very clear.
Mr. Capafalo has given his answer. Now we have Department of Law. Go ahead.
And you'll be up soon, Alderman Beale. So go ahead.
Point of clarification.
Radiatu, go ahead.
Okay.
Good afternoon, Chairman. Good afternoon, members of the
Committee on Workforce.
My name is Radi Tuqanze. I'm Deputy Corporation
Counsel in the city's Law Department.
This subject matter hearing,
based on the proposed ordinances, properly before the License
Committee.
The reason for that is that the ordinance as
proposed has a significant workforce development component.
Specifically, the ordinance authorizes the execution of
one or more agreement with the casino developer in the areas of
making commercially reasonable efforts to provide training opportunities
to city residents
desiring to gain employment at the casino
facility. Also, it provides
partnering with
workforce development organization to identify training and employment
opportunities at the casino facility and to host
job fairs.
It also authorizes contracting in the areas of exercising best
efforts to work with city colleagues of Chicago
to support the development of new hospitality programs, expand
existing construction and hospitality apprenticeship programs.
Deputy-
It also provides for contracting in the areas of funding and maintaining
human resources, hiring, and the training practices
at the casino facility.
Furthermore, it provides for offering
advancement of opportunities to casino facility personnel that
must maintain and include an internship program.
And as I said, the ordinance-
I'm going to interrupt you if I can.
Chair Silverstein, let me finish and, I will let you
to pose your questions to the other committee.
This ordinance has significant
element of workforce development and, under the
city council's rule, Rule 37
provides that the Workforce Committee has jurisdiction
in the areas including efforts to
expand the city's private workforce and to create increased job
opportunities in the city's private sector through business
attraction efforts, business retention efforts,
reduction services, incentive programs, training and retraining
programs, and other means. So I-
We're going to ask you to be a little more concise, please.
Yeah. So this
ordinance is properly before the Workforce Committee because of its
content.
Alderwoman?
Yeah.
It's funny, I appreciate that.
Not one of the public speakers today, and
not anybody sitting here giving their testimony, has
mentioned all of that information.
The only talk is about VGTs, which should be in the
License Committee. And, I'm very
disappointed that our commissioner has allowed this to
come to Workforce.
As a chairman of a committee, I meet regularly with
IGA, with Law, and with
BACP, and we talk about all of the ordinance that come to my committee.
And when those that aren't properly
supposed to be in my committee, we refer them out.
And I very much object
to this being-
maneuver, and I just wanted to be on the record for saying that.
And if this ever does come to a vote, I will
for sure be a no. This is ridiculous in my opinion.
And thank you, I have no other comments.
Thank you, Alderman. We'll move on to Chair Ervin from the Budget Committee.
Chair, are you on?
Yes, I am here.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And it's actually a little
ironic, the statement that Alderman Silverstein made, because the
actual legislation that passed it didn't even go through Licensing.
It actually came through Budget,
which of itself was inappropriate and
as I liken this to the deal that, at the
time, Congressman Lipinski sold the
vote to bring us the Orange Line, which was beneficial to the city, but it
also funded the Iran-Contra affair, too.
So let's not split hairs here as it relates to
jurisdictional items, as it relates to subject matters.
And I think had it been done as a standalone item, it would not have passed
on its face. But coupled with this and trying to make
sausage and passing a budget, it unfortunately did pass.
The one concern that I raise and I consistently will raise,
and it's something I think that Chris Jewett touched upon, was the
fact that people in the city of Chicago actually have
ownership.
There are several members of our respective communities that
actually have stock, that actually own pieces
of the Bally's corporation. That is not the case with the
VGTs. As I stated in a previous council meeting,
there are zero, zero, zero
African Americans or Latinos that have an ownership stake in
any of these companies that are doing business in the city of Chicago that
are purporting to come out to bring VGTs
in any community in our city. There's a third of the money
that goes to the state, a third of the money that goes to the establishment.
There's also a third of the money that goes to the operators, of which there is
zero participation. And so that's number one.
Point number two is, as I stated before, we're tripping over $100
bills to pick up nickels, because that's exactly what we get from a
VGT terminal. Five cents on the dollar versus the 21
cents that we would get from the agreement that we have with the
state and with Bally's. So again,
as Chris stated earlier,
bringing one of those slot machines in
O'Hare or somewhere else outside of Bally's
gives us greater revenue opportunities.
And again, if we're talking about budget, that is going to help us meet our budget
while not having to proliferate gambling in all 50 wards across our
city in order to make that happen, and again, relying on that same stream of
revenue, but generated from a very small area
of our city. So again, we talk about all of these things
and also the pieces that have come back on the workforce development front.
We do want to create solid, good paying jobs for residents of our city.
VGTs is not the way to do that. If we want to make sure that the
city gets its portion, make sure our pension funds get funded the way
they need to be funded, the deal that we have set with Bally's
and with the state on the rate that we receive from them is the way to do
that. What we're creating and what we have created is actually going to
sell us out. It's going to sell our communities out. We have no ownership.
We have no interest. Again, Black and Hispanic people lose in this
conversation. As I stated then, we're not here to hurt our
communities. We're here to help our communities.
And passing this VGT deal, sliding it
into the budget in order to pick up one or two votes, has had a
detrimental impact and will continue to have a detrimental impact,
not only with our relationship with Bally's, but the equity that we all seek for
our various communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Chair. Next up, Alderman Beale.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome.
And Mr. Chairman, it's only protocol to allow somebody for point of
clarification. That's in our rules and regulations.
Let me start by saying, first of all, this is a
waste of time and resources.
I agree with Alderman Silverstein that this committee does not
have jurisdiction over this particular item.
We're not talking about workforce.
We're talking about video gaming terminals, period.
Every speaker on this panel spoke only about video
gaming terminals. And so to try to use this committee as a
workaround the Licensing Committee, in my opinion,
is truly a disservice to this body and
trying to carry out whatever agenda it is that this administration
has,
and using this committee as a tool in order to do that.
Now, let me just say
to our CFO,
you mentioned that VGTs will have
the numbers you mentioned about
video gaming money versus Bally's.
How can you come up to that determination, and we don't even have an
operational video gaming terminal in the city of Chicago?
How can you compare numbers with Bally's?
Thank you for your question.
Mm-hmm.
In July of last year, Christiansen Capital Advisors,
CCA, provided a report to the city and to City Council.
We had a subject matter hearing on that report at that time.
CCA is a
well-known
video gaming
analyst. They've worked across the country. They've worked with the IGB.
We worked with them for the better part of six months in early 2025
to develop an analysis to understand what impacts there
may be on the casino if we legalize VGTs.
Mm-hmm.
This is analysis they had done for other entities.
Mm-hmm.
They did this analysis for us
And the analysis concluded that the benefits are either negative or
marginally positive.
Okay. Based on the data that we have across the
state, the state of Illinois, has video gaming
terminals had a detrimental effect on any casino, in your
opinion?
The IGB has reported-
That's a yes or no
... The IGB has reported that casino tax
revenues have declined since the implementation of VGTs in
2012.
And what is that decline? What's the percentage?
I can follow up through the chair. I believe it's somewhere between 30 to 40%.
I have it if I-
Okay, I didn't ask you a question.
Now,
first of all,
the data that we have is video gaming terminals could potentially
increase our budget between $60 and $100
million. Okay?
And so, that's real data to show that we
have the ability to gain revenue from the
taxpayers to keep from raising fines, fees, and
taxes on the backs of the people. So that's fact.
Your numbers are speculative at best.
So,
let me go to Bally's, who
raised their hand.
Is the current casino
operating at the agreement
capacity that you guys agreed to?
The current casino is operating at every capacity that we agreed to.
So you're not underperforming?
There is no revenue expectation within an agreement.
The HCA agreement stipulates various components
of capital investment, number of machines,
location, hiring, vendor diversity, et cetera.
So there was no
agreement on what you all could potentially
provide revenue to our pension system? There was no agreement?
You're not underperforming-
I didn't-
... on that payment to our pension system?
No, our payment system is the $40 million up front, our $4 million annually-
We're not talking about the $40 million-
And the tax-
... I'm talking about the revenue
... the tax-
I'm talking about the revenue, not the-- You all decided to pay the $40 million to
buy your way into the City of Chicago. That's what the $40 million was. Okay?
So now, excluding that $40 million, are you guys
performing
and providing the money into our pension system that you guys
agreed to?
There is no revenue expectation within the agreement.
Okay, so we don't know if you guys are performing good or not. Okay. Thank you.
Ivan?
Yes, sir.
Commissioner Capafali.
Commissioner.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Who needs to be...
Let me just say, Ivan,
why won't you shut down sweepstakes machines?
Alderman, I would like to have that conversation in another forum.
I don't think we're discussing sweepstakes today.
We're definitely-- Why can't you answer the question?
Why won't you shut down-
Oh-
... illegal sweepstakes machines?
Do we have an ordinance that prohibits sweepstakes machines?
They're illegal.
I think it's failed.
They're illegal.
And right now, this conversation is not about sweepstakes.
Ivan, Commissioner,
we know-- Well, let's use the numbers from the
sweepstakes
people.
They say they have 7,000
machines in the City of Chicago,
and according to them, 2,500, according to them, are
legal. Okay?
Why are we not going after the other thousands that are
illegal?
Alderman, I would like not to discuss sweepstake machines in this
forum.
I am not going into the gambling policy debates with
you or anybody in this forum. What I'm trying to-- My point during my
statement was the implementation burdens that this ordinance, without
BACP at the table, brought to us. That's all I'm here to
debate and to argue. I am not talking about sweepstakes
or anything around our VGTs.
Okay. So
let me just say this.
This is a circus.
Okay? That's all this is, is a circus.
And we're doing all of ourselves a disservice
by even talking about this right now.
When you have a city who won't shut down illegal sweepstakes machines,
but then we have a legal avenue
that's approved by the Illinois Gaming Board, and we want to shut that down
on the grounds that it's going to hurt Bally's, who's
underperforming in their temporary,
number one.
Number two, Bally's has never, ever came out against
illegal sweepstakes machines.
They've never come out against it.
There's nothing on record that says Bally's, that
instruct the city to shut down the illegal sweepstakes machines because it's
hurting our revenue. Nobody's ever said that.
So what are we doing here?
This is the most duplicitous body that I have ever been
part of.
Okay? We're ignoring the law, we're ignoring logic, we're ignoring
common sense,
on behalf of what? And Ivan, I'm sorry, man,
you make excuses left and right.
Your integrity is zero. You have none.
Whoa, wait. Okay.
No, I'm not finished.
Come on, Commissioner.
I'm not finished.
Alderman.
Okay, I tell you what, I'm going to finish with this.
Ivan, Commissioner, I believe that you need to resign because
you are doing a disservice to the City of Chicago.
And let me just say, I motion that we adjourn this meeting
because it's not appropriate, and I motion to
adjourn this meeting.
That motion is in order.
All those in favor, signal by saying aye.
Are there any opposed? I'm opposed.
I believe the ayes have it.
Thank you.
So we are adjourned.
Watching.
Yeah. End up the meeting with my resignation.