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Originally Posted by SuffolkGirl
Hmm, interesting read.
I bet there is something in the licensing of the river boat casinos that required this, thus they were aware of the barriers of entry/cost of doing business. Will's analogy to a taking of money from Bill Gates/internet and giving it to newspapers is specious. The internet and newspapers have been around for some time now, this would be an entirely new taking, not a taking established at the time of inception and agreed upon in order to conduct business. Additionally, newspapers and the internet do not need to be licensed and then do not pay an additional "fee" to the state, above and beyond payroll taxes, real estate taxes, etc., to conduct their business while racing, and I assume, casions do.
How did George Will get onto this subject? Are the riverboat casinos complaining about the transfer of money? If so, it is as folks have been saying for awhile, casinos will not be the white knight for racing. Next you'll have the casino section of a racino balking at the transfer of money from the casion side to the racing side.
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Complaining is an understatement. When this bill originally passed approving the allocation of a percentage of
certain(based on geographical proximatey to tracks) casinos profits to the tracks. This was many years ago. The casinos took it to the Illinois Supreme Court and actually won. But then the appellate court over ruled saying the original decision was wrong and ruled in the tracks favor. The casinos then appealed that and lost and now at their last resort, The US Supreme Court, who should rule in the next 60 days. Meanwhile, there is about $80 Million in an escrow awaiting distribution to all tracks....a percentage to the physical building and a percentage to purse funds...based on the Supreme Court denying the casino's appeal. Plus this law was extended another 3 years by a last minute signing by Blagojevich before he was hauled off to jail.
That went over real well
