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IL Supreme Court to Debate Video Poker, Capital Budget
(IRN) -- The battle over the state's major construction program, and how to pay for it, is before the Illinois Supreme Court with oral arguments Tuesday.

The crux of the case is that the $31 billion capital bill does not conform to the rule that a bill be confined to a single subject. That's the hook, anyway, on which the plaintiffs -- led by Chicago liquor wholesaler Rocky Wirtz -- are hanging their hopes. An increased liquor tax would, he says, hurt his business. Wirtz is the owner of hockey's Chicago Blackhawks.

Much of the money for the public works construction would come from legalized video poker. A consultant to gambling companies, Walt Stowe, appeared in Springfield recently to say he hopes the state's highest court rules in favor of the state so his clients can start selling poker machines to the businesses which will host them. Stowe, a former Chicago-based FBI agent, now helps the gambling industry navigate regulations.

Stowe says the key word in all this is "legalized" -- he estimates up to 60,000 machines are in use around Illinois, with none of the proceeds benefiting the state.

(Illinois Radio Network)
05 16 11 by Newsroom
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