by Tony Peraica

I am pleased to announce that the Cook County Board has approved an ordinance (which I co-sponsored) that reinforces the ban on video gambling in unincorporated Cook County.

Please click here to read the ordinance.

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.

I 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Numerous states have repealed their video gaming laws after experiencing the adverse consequences — consequences not unintended by promoters.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 ordinance passed today bans video gaming in Cook County.

Today’s vote ensures that we will not repeat the mistake that other communities have made in their mad quest for easy money.

Video gaming has a cost, and the cost is too high.