Rockford to raise taxes on video gambling

A new bill signed into law by the Illinois governor allows Rockford to raise taxes on video gambling machines.

US.- The gambling industry in Illinois keeps reporting changes, this time by introducing a new law that will allow Rockford to increase taxes. On August 9, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill that allows Rockford to raise taxes on video gaming machines.

The Senate Bill 1558, which takes effect immediately, was sponsored by Senator Steve Stadelman. It allows Rockford to raise licence fees on video gaming machines in order to generate more revenue.

Current laws feature a non-home rule that says that cities in Illinois can’t charge more than US$25 annually for a video gaming machine licence. The new Illinois law raises the limit to US$250, but it only does in Rockford.

Rockford extends casino proposal deadline

Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara announced that the city has extended the deadline to answer to the request for proposal (RFP) to build a casino. The deadline, which was originally set for August 16, has now been pushed to August 30.

The Mayor of Rockford said that the original deadline only gave potential developers 44 days to complete their proposals. That number of days is less than half the industry standard for RFP responses, therefore the new extension will give them 58 days in total.

“We hired consultants who have national experience in dealing with gaming, specifically with casinos, and requests for proposals,” McNamara said. “They’ve all stated to us that the time frame that we provided to respondents is incredibly tight. They strongly urged us to extend the time, so we extended it 14 days. We did this because we want to make sure that we get the absolute best proposals. We want the absolute best deal for the citizens of Rockford.”