WASHINGTON: Gambling revenues in Rockton, Roscoe and South Beloit continue to grow, although Roscoe Village Board President Dave Krienke says it could be replacing spending from other local businesses.
Roscoe received $206,665 in 2015 from video gaming. This year, the number is already up to $176,413, with three months left in the year. Krienke said Roscoe has 13 businesses with slot machines. He also said 90 percent of the gaming revenue goes toward building a new police department and 10 percent goes into the general fund. He noted he would prefer the bulk of the money goes to the general fund, but the board doesn’t agree with him.
Despite Roscoe’s growing gambling revenue, Krienke said he doesn’t consider it new money. He noted sales tax revenues are down $200,000 in addition to the village’s telecommunications tax being down. “They now gamble instead of buying goods. I believe there was a shift in money from column A to column B. What was being paid in sales tax is going into gaming,” Krienke said.
Krienke said there are only so many disposable dollars in a household. If those in the household spend their dollars on gaming, there is only so much left for other items. He noted when the economy is bad, people tend to buy more alcohol and cigarettes as well as gamble more, hoping to win the “big one.”
Krienke said gaming can negatively affect other businesses that don’t have it. He cited an example of a restaurant/bar in the area. “Since he’s had slot machines his kitchen doesn’t sell as much food as it used to. Eventually he may close the kitchen and not have the food and it would put somebody out of work,” Krienke said. “Gambling has an effect on social issues. It’s not all good.”
Despite his reservations about gambling, Krienke said if Roscoe didn’t have it patrons would simply go to the other neighboring municipalities offering it and spend their money there. Because people would continue to use their disposable income on gaming as opposed to other goods and services, Roscoe would be down sales tax without any gaming revenue to offset it. “People are going to gamble, and would just go someplace else. We would still lose the money,” Krienke said.
Rockton Village Board President Dale Adams said each municipality gets 5 cents on the dollar. In Rockton there are seven different places with machines. “Anything helps, but for us, it’s not the big benefit we had originally envisioned. We are comfortable with the number of establishments with the video games and we expect there will be more out by the Walmart area in the future. However, we don’t want to get every other storefront with video gaming,” Adams said.
In 2014, Rockton made $40,396 from gaming. Last year it made $42,106. Gaming revenue goes into the general fund, and is not targeted toward anything specific. South Beloit Finance Director Don Elliott said video gaming receipts for the City of South Beloit were $105,600 in 2014; $166,094 in 2015; and $142,330 so far for 2016.
