CHICAGO, IL – Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica and fellow commissioners Bridget Gainer and Gregg Goslin held a press conference today to explain their support for an ordinance to oppose video poker.

The state’s Video Gaming Act was passed this summer with no public input or analysis of the impact it will have on the jurisdictions obliged to implement and enforce it. Although the state law permits installation of video gaming terminals on certain public premises, the Cook County Code of Ordinances currently prohibits the operation of such devices within unincorporated areas.

Commissioners Peraica, Gainer and Goslin believe that legalized video poker – with its potential for corruption, its demands on law enforcement, its high social costs, and its regulatory difficulties – is a bad idea for Cook County.

Numerous states have repealed their video gaming laws after experiencing the adverse consequences — consequences not unintended by promoters. Electronic gaming is designed to be addictive and to entice the participant to continue playing when he knows he should quit.

Invoking Section 27 of the Video Gaming Act, which permits counties and municipalities to prohibit video gaming within their boundaries, the proposed ordinance would ban video gaming in Cook County.

Please click here to view the ordinance.

“Let’s not repeat the mistake that other communities have made in their mad quest for easy money,” said Commissioner Peraica. “Video gaming has a cost, and the cost is too high.”

Tony Peraica has served as the commissioner for the west suburban 16th District since 2002.  An attorney and small business owner, Peraica resides in Riverside, with a district office in Westchester.  Visit his official Web site at www.CommissionerPeraica.com.