The Illinois Racing Board granted the first state license Tuesday to operate an off-track horse betting parlor in Du Page County, but the parlor must still be approved by Oakbrook Terrace.
The Racing Board, meeting at the State of Illinois Center in Chicago, unanimously accepted a staff recommendation to approve a state license for Inter-Track Partners Inc., a consortium of state race-track operators, to operate a parlor in Oakbrook Terrace.
Tuesday night, the Oakbrook Terrace City Council considered the issue but postponed action on the matter for another two weeks.
The council voted unanimously to table the package of measures to allow two new council members, elected last week, to study it.
Two weeks ago, the council, with Mayor Richard Sarallo breaking a 3-3 tie, approved drafting city ordinances that would permit the county`s first betting parlor. These ordinances were tabled Tuesday night.
Inter-Track`s plan calls for purchasing the Bay Street Restaurant on the northwest corner of 22nd Street and Midwest Road, doubling its size and operating a seven-day-a-week dining room, lounge and horse betting parlor beginning in September. The establishment would be called The Winner`s Circle. The Racing Board said it had received a petition from city residents opposing the project.
Betting parlor opponents include Venture Stores Inc., which operates a retail store adjacent to Bay Street and contends that inadequate parking and increased traffic will adversely affect its business.
Over the last several weeks, the retailing firm has commissioned its own traffic study in an effort to dissuade the City Council from giving final approval to the betting parlor.
That traffic study still is underway.
Although some local religious and educational leaders have stated their opposition to the betting operation, the racing board`s staff report noted that there are no schools or churches within 500 feet of the proposed betting facility. Such a location is forbidden by state law.
The report also said that the operation of the Oakbrook Terrace betting facility would not adversely affect the operation of race tracks such as Maywood, 7.5 miles away, and Hawthorne and Sportsman`s Park, both 11 miles to the southeast.
The state report said the Oakbrook Terrace facility will draw most of its customers from within a 10-mile radius, an area containing more than 1 million people with an average income of $44,937 a year.
The Oakbrook Terrace license marks the first time that an application for off-track betting in Du Page reached the state board after Aurora and Warrenville rejected similar bids.
Off-track betting parlors in northern Joliet, in Will County, and North Aurora, in Kane County, are the closest sites to Du Page.
Sarallo has been a strong supporter of a betting parlor for Oakbrook Terrace, claiming that the anticipated $400,000 annual tax revenue will benefit his community and that horse betting is no more unethical or immoral than the state lottery or bingo games.
The topic of gambling has drawn at lot of recent interest in the state, from off-track betting parlors to the planned arrival of the first gambling riverboat in Illinois July 4, on the Mississippi River in Alton.
