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Casino could pump $375 M into Southland Revenue estimates show a sizable boon for 32 school districts, 18 towns Sunday, January 25, 2004 By John Dobberstein Staff writer A casino in Country Club Hills could bring in $375 million in revenue each year, delivering a sizable fraction of that to struggling south suburbs and school districts sorely in need of cash, according to plans filed with the Illinois Gaming Board. If the south suburbs win the right to build Illinois' first new casino in 10 years, as much as $22.7 million in local taxes would be doled out each year to 18 suburbs and 32 school districts. Revenue estimates provided by Southland Development Group, which is vying for that license, also show that some $12 million of the gaming tax cash would be put into a trust and be distributed equally to 16 suburbs, netting each town $750,000 a year. Fifteen percent of the total ‹ $3.4 million ‹ would go to Country Club Hills as the host community. Crestwood would get 7 percent of the tax revenue ‹ $1.5 million a year. Another $5.6 million would be distributed to school districts served by suburbs participating in the revenue-sharing deal. Poorer school districts would get a larger share of money, but a formula for divvying up the money is still being worked out, said Anthony Bass, an attorney representing the casino developers. Joe Canfora, CEO of Merit Management Group, which would operate the casino, insisted the 275-acre casino development would be "the newest and most well-designed entertainment place in the Midwest." A water park, children's arcade, bowling alley, golf course and other amenities, like restaurants and shopping, would make the development a regional draw, Canfora said. "It's not like a (gambling) boat where you go in, you gamble a little bit and you leave," said Canfora, a former president of Emerald Casino Inc. 'Recapturing' gamers' dollars Canfora said the revenue projections offered to the Gaming Board in his proposal are conservative. Still, they are in line with cash pouring into the Chicago area's existing casinos. Elgin's Grand Victoria Casino, for example, brought in more than $400 million in 2002. It's been the highest grossing casino in the state since opening in 1994, followed by Joliet's Empress and Harrah's operations. Elgin raked in $23 million in local gaming tax revenue with its single riverboat in 2002. Joliet reaped nearly $33 million from its two casinos, Gaming Board reports show. Des Plaines officials have said their proposed casino would raise $25 million to $30 million a year in local gaming tax revenue, with 25 percent of the money being shared with the 10 "economically depressed" suburbs in Cook County. Canfora said he believes a major selling point for the Country Club Hills casino, however, will be its ability to "recapture" dollars now being lost at nearby Indiana casinos. In an economic study completed by accounting and auditing firm Crowe, Chizek and Company, 64 percent of the revenue generated at the Country Club Hills casino ‹ about $240 million total ‹ would come from Illinois gamblers now visiting Indiana's riverboats. Another 16 percent would come from gamblers going to Illinois casinos. A little more than 10 percent of the total revenue would come from new market growth, while 7.5 percent would come from the "Interstate 80 tourist market." Merit officials have disagreed with contentions that the Country Club Hills casino would be too close to Joliet's boats to be profitable. The proposed Country Club Hills casino ‹ which would stand alongside Interstates 57 and 80 ‹ would be managed by Merit and Gatling Community Development, formed recently by former Empress Casino Inc. executives. Merit formed Southland Development Corp. to bid on the state's last gaming license, which was stripped from Emerald Casino Inc. in 2001. Waukegan, Summit, Rosemont and Des Plaines also have submitted bids to the Gaming Board. Crestwood had partnered with 10 south suburbs and Trump Hotel and Casino Resorts to go after the license. But the deal fell through, and the consortium joined forces last week with the Country Club Hills group. How to split the profits? The 16 suburbs participating in the revenue-sharing plan ‹ which would form the Southland Economic Development Agency ‹ would get about $750,000 a year if trust-fund proceeds were divided evenly. The suburbs participating are Alsip, Blue Island, Calumet City, Calumet Park, Chicago Heights, Dixmoor, Dolton, Ford Heights, Harvey, Hazel Crest, Phoenix, Posen, Midlothian, Robbins, Riverdale and Worth. Each community would be a voting member of what's being called the SEDA Trust in the Gaming Board bid. The SEDA Trust "will operate as a mechanism for sharing revenue among the communities." Financial requests from the fund would be "vetted by a vote of all the members." Country Club Hills and Crestwood would be voting members of the trust fund agency, too, but would not get money out of the trust fund because each already has its own percentage of the local tax revenue. Crestwood is getting its own share of the tax money ‹ instead of being part of the trust ‹ because "they worked extremely hard and they got a group together," Bass said. "By them being able to bring all of those communities that are with them, they worked out a deal, and this is the deal that we accepted." However, if the legislature creates another casino license or two, the agreement prohibits Crestwood from becoming a casino host community for two years. |
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