Kankakee Times

With gaming terminals shut down by Gov. J.B. Pritzker from March to July, it should come as no surprise that revenues will be lower this year. 

But the loss of revenues will affect every community in the region, the Daily Journal reported. Some communities may lose more than $126,000 this year due to the gaming industry being closed for several months. Communities have also seen a decline in gaming tax revenue year after year, with Kankakee being the largest hit. 

"According to statistics from the Illinois Gaming Board, Kankakee had 2020 revenues of $238,752 through the first nine months of this year. By comparison, the city had $364,957 in 2019 during that same time frame. Those figures — a reduction of just over $126,000 of income — represents a 35% drop of city gambling taxes from state-licensed video gaming," Lee Provost wrote in the Daily Journal. "The story is the same across the region."

Manteno has seen gaming revenues drop 30% and Bradley has seen a 29% decrease. Most other cities have seen a similar decrease. 

Kankakee County saw gaming revenues go from $43,535 in 2019 to $24,155 in 2020. This is equal to a 45% decrease.

Kankakee Comptroller Elizabeth Kubal said regardless of the drop in gaming revenue, the city is still doing fairly well budgeting gaming dollars. 

"It would be easy to say that without the lost half-month of March and all of April, the city would have realized gaming revenues in excess of $500,000 in the past fiscal year. That is correct. A half-million dollars," Provost wrote. 

This year, Kankakee budgeted $396,500 for gaming. If there were not lockdowns, this number would have likely been surpassed. 

Other communities are quickly recovering from the gaming losses faster than expected because there gaming establishments were allowed to have six terminals instead of five, the Daily Journal reported. This increase went into effect with Pritzker's $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital bill. 

Manteno has recently added five poker machines and expects to see revenues increase as well. 

Revenues are currently down approximately 30% in most cities, but Chris LaRocaque, Manteno village administrator, said he expects it to lower to 15% to 20% by April 30, 2021. 

“That’s our hope. And the gaming revenue has not been as bad as we thought it would have been,” he told the Daily Journal. "We’ve lost revenues in so many areas this year. But for some people this is their hobby and there was some pent up demand."