Illinois Racing gets a kick
 

Up to 70 mil a year.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdo...hdog17.article

If we see half of that, I'll be surprised

Yeah it sounds like the geniuses down in Springfield want to spend the money on stupid "education." What a waste.

They should be taking money out of education and putting it into horse racing. Just teach the kiddies how to bet the Catalano and they'll do just fine.

Id say half would be best case scenerio, and if education is in the mess they say it is, it should go to the schools.

If I owned a small neighborhood grocery store and Wal-Mart moved in across the street, Id go before legislators and demand a percentage of their profits.:rolleyes:

I know..I understand the priorities. Just trying to figure out how this money ( if it does) differs from the retro award they received for the existing casinos? That was a nice and I think sufficient chunk of change that could continue on. Was this above and beyond that?

I think it differs.

I think when retro award was being ironed out, it was put in the contract that "When the 10th casino was awards, such and such goes to the racetracks"

I could be wrong though

Typical bs from the same old crybabies looking to curry favor with unions. The whole "education" argument is lame but people seem not to be able to see it for what it is, pandering to the teachers union. These mandates were given to the horse racing industry in lieu of casino licenses, the idea being that the politicians could take care of everyone. But now they want to renege on the deal because the state is broke? We are talking about money that has yet to even be made in a casino that does not yet exist. I'm tired of horseracing being treated as though it is not an important business that raises huge amounts of money for state governments. Why not place a tax on the current Cubs owners who are about to make a huge windfall on the sale of the team? It makes about as much sense.

That may be part of it, but I think that angle is overhyped a bit. The big problem is simply that almost every politician - regardless of party - is only ever interested in short-term solutions because most of them can't see past the next election. If some new spending can be spun as spending on "education," a politician would be commiting political suicide if he or she voted against it. Too many of them just lack any sort of political courage whatsoever.
Investing in an industry that does - as you say - raise large amounts of money for the state, never seems to cross any of their minds because there is no immediate political advantage gained from it. The fact that investing more money in horse racing - or a host of other things - could improve the product, and therefore raise even more money for the state goverment, seems to be a concept that most of them are unwilling to care about. They just spend, spend, spend....without ever really investing in future financial security.

FYI: Meeks the guy trying to steal the cash has come up w/some lame brain ideas in the past including calling for public high school students to be absent the first day of class as a protest, obviously for $$$ and not for education. And earlier this year he took two bus loads of inner city students to New Trier in Winnetka to try and register. For those who aren't from the area Winnetka is about as wealthy as it gets in IL. Don't think they quite met the residency requirement but it was a nice try. I think Winnetka lost a few of their finest that day due to heart attacks.

Yeah, that guy loves seeing his face in the newspaper....

No amount of $ can make Chicago area horseracing attractive to most players outside of Illinois. Playing that s-h-i-t is like dumping a suitcase full of cash into a bonfire. Haven't you been in Vegas racebooks at a time when a lot of tracks are running? See very many people playing that Chicago racing? No, there is not a peep from anyone when those races are being run. They might as well give the money to schools, because they have some dogs-h-i-t quality horseracing going on there. Only people that don't get that are the people in that state. That's a local attraction, and it's gunna stay local.

Well said

Take 4 mil, and your best(used loosely) 200 mares, and give them all dates with Lion Heart. You'll atleast have some horses that give a damn about winning. Some will hang going 1 turn, and some will hang going 2 turns. You're gunna get some horses with some turn of foot though. That would be a lot more fun than what you've got. Doesn't Arlington have that 1 turn mile? That's perfect for his kids. Look at the Lion Heart 1st time starter in the last race at the Fairgrounds last night. MAYHOW or something like that. He totally misses the break. He has a ton of run on the turn. Goes incredibly wide(thanks so much,) and flattens a bit (who wouldn't) late. He was atleast 5 lengths best. Who knows what they're do at 3, but you got a chance with him going to ya mares. Ya got no chance if ya keep making the s-h-i-t you're making. Even if they'll only accept 10 of your mares, then spend the 200k. Stop making the crap that eats, but doesn't run.

Will you relax? all the smoke by you is getting in your brain

Well, you got to admit, the majority of the races at Hawthorne look like cattle drives.

Hawthorne is like Fairplex, you consider that racing? They run Mules there for christ sake

Arlington isn't good. It's just not as bad. We have Fairplex for a few weeks. You have them cattle drives (with semi-trucks moving in the background) for half the year.

wait till Hawthorne gets the 10h casino and opens its hotel and water park. Not a worse place in IL for the project sans East St. Louis.

http://hawthorneracecourse.com/hawth...or10thcasinoli

Des Plaines, Rosemont and Waukegan are the only ones that can get that 10th license now, they annoucned this last week I think Steve

Great to hear. Now we have a 2 out of 3 shot to have a casino within 5 miles of the office. Forget that first sentence.