Overlook Sin Metropolis, a on line casino, harness monitor, and 60,000-square-foot sports activities complicated might be coming to “Soy Metropolis,” aka Decatur, Ailing., “the Soybean Capital of the World.”
In addition to authorizing horse racing in Macon County, the invoice is anticipated to set a deadline for the Hawthorne Race Course, pictured above, to construct a racino of its personal. (Picture: DRF)
Decatur was not certainly one of 5 places earmarked for regional on line casino licenses by the huge playing enlargement package deal signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in June 2019. However a invoice quickly to be filed within the state legislature would authorize a license for harness racing in Macon County, of which Decatur is the seat, The Herald & Evaluate stories.
Not solely did the 2019 laws open up Chicago to on line casino gaming it additionally allowed the state’s racetracks to improve to racinos in a bid to avoid wasting the ailing business. Six years later, not a single racino has opened.
However that’s about to vary.
The former Fairmount Park Racetrack expects to open a short lived gaming facility within the second quarter of this 12 months. Now, a proposed mission for Decatur hopes to be up and operating by late 2026.
Revolutionary Racing
Whereas the brand new invoice would primarily create an open tender for a Decatur license, it has been created with one explicit candidate in thoughts.
Virginia-based Revolutionary Racing has pledged to speculate $150 million within the Decatur mission, which it estimates would create 300 everlasting jobs and generate as much as $27 million in taxes.
Revolutionary Racing, which is within the technique of constructing an $80 million racetrack in Kentucky, states on its web site that it really works with legislators “to adapt legal guidelines and save horse racing.”
The developer instructed the Herald & Evaluate this week it’s eyeing a fall 2026 as a gap date for the proposed facility however that will depend on when the laws is authorized by the state legislature.
Lawmakers and lobbyists backing the invoice say it’s more likely to be prime precedence when the brand new legislative session begins on Wednesday, in response to The Herald & Evaluate.
Strain on Hawthorne
The invoice can also be anticipated to set a deadline for the Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, close to Chicago, to construct a racino of its personal.
The state granted the monitor preliminary approval to maneuver ahead with a racino mission in 2019, shortly after Pritzker signed the enabling laws. Demolition work started on its grandstand, however the mission was halted and has been on maintain ever since.
Final Could, The Chicago Tribune reported that the monitor’s house owners have been unable to get loans to construct the racino and owe massive money owed to contractors.
Hawthorne’s inaction has prevented different potential initiatives from getting off the bottom as a result of the 2019 laws gave the monitor the ability to veto any proposed new racetrack inside a 35-mile radius.
The Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Affiliation is backing a push to have Hawthorne’s veto energy revoked.
