The Village of East Dundee might see a decline in video gaming terminals (VGTs), as the Village Board is considering actions to rein in their proliferation. According to the Chicago Tribune, the village has one terminal for every 25 residents, a high number per capita.
In November 2023, East Dundee put a one-year hold on VGT expansion following an influx of new requests for licenses.
The village hosts 126 terminals in bars, restaurants, and gas stations. In a locale with only 3,160 residents, that’s a dense concentration. Compare that to neighboring West Dundee, which “has one terminal for every 263 residents,” according to the Tribune.
License waiting period, increased fees among proposals
While Illinois online casinos remain off the table in East Dundee and throughout the state, the topic of limiting VGTs is prominent right now. In East Dundee the yearlong moratorium on VGTs ends in November. The village already has some regulations around VGTS: how much noise they can make, limits on the number of machines in a space (one for every 750 feet), and more.
However, the Village Board has yet to impose a limit on the number of licenses and machines allowed overall. That’s where things may change ahead of the moratorium’s expiration.
Suggestions for curbing VGT growth in East Dundee include introducing six-month waiting periods for licensees and making licenses nontransferable. The latter would stop licenses and machines from changing hands after an establishment sells to a new owner, for example.
Other ideas are to restrict terminals’ on-property location (e.g., they must be away from the entrance), rethink the square footage stipulations, or simply raise license fees.
Would these measures work?
Some of these ideas seem more promising than others. For example, the physical location of a machine or the square footage limits wouldn’t do much to restrict the number of machines. If the overarching goal is to stem the expansion of VGTs, then license waiting periods, limits, and price increases are more likely to win the day.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Village President Jeff Lynam used last year’s moratorium to stop nontraditional licensing requests. Liquor stores were starting to request VGTs, and some proponents of gambling parlors were getting into the mix.
Village Trustee Sara Brittin said:
“I don’t think we should stop letting machines in town, and I’m not saying take any out. But as a board, we can have a discussion of what we have now, where we want to go, what makes more sense and how we go about getting there… What do we want gaming to look like in our community?”
Many of the concerns about VGTs are rooted in East Dundee’s division of residential versus nonresidential property. Some estimates suggest there is a 30-70 split, with businesses like restaurants and retail outlets making up the majority of the village.
What other locations could learn from East Dundee
Numerous Illinois towns, villages, and cities are exploring the possibilities of VGTs, and they could stand to learn some important lessons from East Dundee: Bolingbrook, for example, which is putting a VGT question on its November ballot to gauge residents’ interest in allowing the machines.
Bolingbrook is far from a one-to-one comparison with East Dundee. For one thing, the former has a population of more than 70,000, so it’s significantly larger.
However, if it were to move forward on VGTs, Bolingbrook might take a lesson from East Dundee, evaluate its own ratio of businesses to residences, and put sensible limitations on the machines.
