Illinois Senate heads want to amend law to benefit casino company

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.: The Pennsylvania-based owners of the Argosy Casino at Alton have given Illinois politicians almost a half-million dollars in the past three years.

On Thursday, Illinois Senate leaders who got much of that money were poised to give something back: A change in state law that will let the company keep the casino, overruling state gambling regulators who’d ordered the company to sell.

Legislation filed Thursday would change state gaming law specifically for the benefit of one company: Penn National Gaming of Wyomissing, Pa., which owns the Argosy and two other Illinois casinos in Aurora and Joliet.

The provision is tucked inside an omnibus gambling expansion measure that was hurriedly compiled Thursday under orders from Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, and other Senate leaders _ who, together, received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Penn National last fall alone. The Senate narrowly approved the bill late Thursday, sending it to the House.

``This is the attitude of the casinos: If the (Illinois) Gaming Board doesn’t do what they want, they come to Springfield,’’ said Anita Bedell of the anti-gambling group Illinois Church Action on Alcohol & Addiction problems.

The Gaming Board in 2005 ruled that for one entity to own three of Illinois’ nine casinos was an improper concentration of the market, and the board ordered Penn National to sell off the Alton and Joliet boats. The company expressed disappointment at the ruling, but told the Post-Dispatch last year that it wasn’t going to use its growing clout in Illinois to go over the Gaming Board’s head.

The company will ``comply with our agreement to divest the Argosy properties in Illinois,’’ a Penn National official told the newspaper in a February 2006 e-mail exchange. ``To our knowledge, there is no push under way in the (Illinois) Legislature on this issue.’’

But on Thursday, amid the rush to pass a new state budget before a looming legislative deadline, a very clear push was evident in the gambling expansion bill.

An amendment to that bill, filed by Senate Democratic leadership earlier in the day on Thursday, specifies that, ``notwithstanding any rule or statute to the contrary, any licensed owner holding three or more (casino) licenses on May 31, 2007, may continue to hold those licenses.’’

Penn National is the only entity to which that amendment applies.

State campaign disclosure records show the company has contributed more that $50,000 in the past three years to Jones or the Democratic Senate campaign committee controlled by Jones, with almost half that money coming last fall.

Jones has spearheaded the creation of the gaming expansion bill that contains the Penn National provision. Tens of thousands of dollars more in donations went from the company to other key Senate Democrats who have sided with Jones on the gambling expansion legislation.

The broader bill would add four new casinos to Illinois’ gaming industry and allow expansion of existing casinos. The Senate passed the bill by a 30-29 vote Thursday. It now moves to the House, where it faces an uncertain future because of Speaker Michael Madigan’s opposition to new casinos.

Penn National’s Illinois lobbyists couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday evening. A spokeswoman for Jones said the donations and the gambling bill aren’t related. ``There is no connection between contributions and legislation. None,’’ said the spokeswoman, Cindy Davidsmeyer.

There are no campaign contribution limits in Illinois, and no rules against giving money to politicians while lobbying them.