Video Gaming in Evanston
I share communications between the City of Evanston and Universal Gaming Group, the company lobbying to get video gaming in Evanston bars and restaurants
The City of Evanston is considering passing an ordinance to legalize certain types of video gaming in bars and restaurants. According to the Evanston Roundtable, the ordinance goes in front of the Council tonight and is potentially even being voted on as I type this.
This is another subject where I don’t have a strong opinion - I like gambling, but it’s a dirty business, so when I heard the City was getting involved I submitted a FOIA for records which pertain to the communications between the company involved, Universal Gaming, and City Staffers. Along with that, they provided a very comprehensive report on the state of video gaming in IL.
According to the report, this is big business;
In fiscal year 2021, Illinois video gaming terminals (VGTs) generated a record $2.47 billion in net terminal income (NTI)
Through the first 6 months of fiscal year 2022, VGT NTI is $1.34 billion, up about 13% compared to the same period in fiscal 2021. [Update: I had a typo in this line initially which had the wrong dates, this is corrected]
The state receives 29% of VGT NTI as tax revenue, while municipalities receive an additional 5% tax. The terminal operators and establishments split the remaining 66% of NTI.
VGT revenue now exceeds that of Illinois' 10 casinos. In the first 10 months of fiscal 2022, casinos generated about $406 million compared to $1.34 billion for VGTs.
Lobbying Efforts
The emails tell a story of a lobbying campaign on behalf of the Universal Gaming Group. On Nov 18, 2022, Mr. Bady, the Business Development Employee from Universal emailed Mayor Biss, claiming to have met with 8 of 9 Alderman. It’s unclear if he actually met with that many aldermen.
Mayor Biss responded that he would be happy to meet up.
Mr. Bady then suggested they meet at the Firehouse Grill and after a handful of emails and the Mayor being sick, they agreed to meet on Thursday Jan.5th 2023 at 1:15pm1. After that meeting, Mr. Bady sent an email on February 1, 2023 to City Council members titled “Video Gaming Follow up”. In this email, he cites the significant revenue generated from the gaming;
Niles, Morton Grove and unincorporated Glenview currently are the closest municipalities that offer gaming. Niles generated $900,000.00 in revenue for the municipality from July 2021 - July 2022 which is 5% of the states 34%.
More emails go back and forth for a bit and involve restaurant owners (Firehouse Grill, Ridgeville Tavern, and the Shell Gas Station in the 8th ward) reaching out to the City Council. This is a potential big source of revenue for restaurant owners, as detailed above, terminal operators and establishments split the remaining 66% of revenue.
Councilmember Nieuwsma forwards one email to a city staffer, Paul Zalmezak, to ask his opinion. He replies, that he hadn’t looked deeply into it and offered his opinion on community standards;
Finally, do we have a community standard that Is tarnished by this? I would argue no. Especially if we use the proceeds for a strong social cause - reparations,. Violence interruption, Homelessness, mental health (living room or ambassador program),
Evanston Resident, President/COO of Universal
In the Roundtable story, they write;
The gambling issue was brought to Reid’s attention by Robert “Rob’’ Bady, a fellow Eighth Ward resident and the business development manager for the Universal Gaming Group based in Addison, which has roughly 200 video gambling locations in Illinois.
But Mr. Bady is not the only Evanston resident with ties to the Universal Gaming Group.
If you live anywhere near the lake, you may be familiar with 925 W Edgemere Ct, the $5 million dollar lakefront Spanish Style mansion that Crain’s once described as “very ego-driven.”2 This house is owned by the President / COO of Universal Gaming Group, Robert Breslow. I jog down Edgemere Court regularly, and this house has been under various forms of construction and renovation since at least 2013, if not earlier.
I would argue this puts the city in a weird position - not quite a conflict of interest - but they will source potentially a million bucks in revenue from Universal Gaming but at the same time, the President of the company is a wealthy lakefront landowner. Why hasn’t this been brought up at all? Let me know in the comments.
I do not have any proof to indicate whether this meeting actually occured or not, but I do not see any final cancellations in the emails provided to me. It was cancelled once due to the Mayor being sick and this was the rescheduled meeting.
This house has a fascinating history by itself that includes ownership by the convicted former chairman of the failed Western Springs National Bank & Trust.
Thank you for this information. Video gaming is gambling. I, like many others, feel that the lack of financial transparency in Evanston will be a problem. Maybe some staff, council members and residents feel this is an easy source of revenue. However, gambling comes with high costs on many levels. The fact that city staff overestimated this year's budget by $87 million and overspent in certain funds without informing the council before the council voted on projects is concerning. Although the city had a $400 million budget, maintaining our assets and completing large Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) without major overruns is a stretch for them. These are reasons to slow down. Public discussion and a referendum are in order on video gaming
The current arrangement regarding video gaming is worrisome in one way — transparency. One has to be skeptical about how detailed oversight of gambling profits have been in the past and the future, if only because so much money is involved.