You might have noticed something missing from this year’s debate on the expansion of legalized gambling in Illinois: any actual debate.
Practically without substantive opposition beyond backstabbing within the gambling industry itself, three decades of Illinois lawmakers gradually upping the ante on legalized wagering as a solution to government revenue needs gave way to an “all in” explosion of new and larger gambling venues and more ways for people to part with their money —including online and sports betting.
The voices that once spoke out against the social costs of gambling were gone or ignored, not to suggest they could have made any difference at this point.
“Torching myself in the rotunda is the only thing that would have gotten attention,” said the Rev. Tom Grey, 78, once the leader of Illinois’ loyal gambling opposition, now an interested observer living out of state.
Grey was a Methodist minister in Galena nearly three decades ago when a riverboat gambling developer came calling. He lost that battle and nearly every one since, but he’d like to think he contributed along the way to at least slowing down America’s gambling binge.
“Hopefully, we cost them some money,” Grey said. “In the long run, I’m on the winning side of this. It’s going to crap out.”
Grey retired in 2008 and moved to Spokane, Washington, to be closer to his kids and grandkids. He’s still a senior adviser to the Stop Predatory Gambling organization, a successor to his National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion and also still an expert at framing the issue.
Of the new Illinois gambling legislation that awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature, he says: “They broke the greed-lock.”
Grey’s point was that the greed of the existing gambling establishment — the racetracks, casinos and video gambling industry — had created the gridlock that for the past decade was the only thing holding back the massive expansion created by the final deal. They were all so determined to protect their own piece of the gambling pie that they routinely sabotaged anyone else trying to get in on the action.
Greed-lock. Get it?
“There’s no more gambling they can do,” Grey said. “Everyone got what they want.”
Yes, that’s an interesting aspect of Pritzker’s negotiating style: give everyone something they want.
Grey says his beef has never been with gambling or gamblers. It’s with government being in the gambling business and relying on making losers of its citizens to pay its bills.
“If you did the math, you’d really say this is a losing proposition,” Grey said. “Government’s use of gambling on its own people is evil.”
He scoffs at the argument Chicago should have a casino because its residents are already gambling away their money across the state border in Hammond.
He describes that theory as: “Let’s mug them here before they mug them in Indiana.”
Also absent from the anti-gambling fight this year was Doug Dobmeyer, former spokesman for the Task Force to Oppose Gambling in Chicago.
Dobmeyer, 70, had to step back from his work in 2012 after developing multiple sclerosis. Although he’s in a wheelchair these days, he remains an astute observer of the local political scene, and is at a loss to explain why the task force dropped its work without him.
“We kept the casinos out of Chicago for 30 years,” he said. “It’s possible that people were worn down by that fight. I know I was.”
Dobmeyer believes the irony of approving the legislation at this juncture is that “casino gambling’s time has come and gone” and predicts a Chicago casino won’t make as much money as some expect.
He also has no moral objection to gambling, having played a little poker himself, but draws the line at government involvement.
Dobmeyer doesn’t like the idea of the state doing what used to be left to organized crime.
“It’s like: why are we doing this?” he asked.
The only one really left to carry the gambling fight this year was Anita Bedell, executive director of Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems.
Bedell, often referred to in the Statehouse as The Church Lady, is known as a sincere, reliable and, somewhat unfortunately, predictable voice on such matters.
When the actual language in the gambling bill surfaced in the last days, Bedell said she and her allies attempted to testify at a committee hearing but were limited to two minutes.
“They shut us down. They didn’t want to hear from us,” Bedell said.
At some, I’d say we all gave up on the gambling question until the only question left is: How much is too much?
Editor’s note: This article was corrected to say the Rev. Tom Grey was a Methodist minister.
