By Kevin Lee    Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD  –  Bar patrons hoping to gamble on video gaming machines in Illinois may have to wait until next summer for the opportunity.

For years, bars and establishments have had video machines, but state law has only allowed patrons to play games such as poker and keno for recreational, non-gambling purposes.

Last summer, Gov. Pat Quinn approved of allowing gambling with video gaming machines and expanding production of the machines. A cut of video gaming revenues would go towards providing funding for a $31-billion multi-year statewide construction program.

More than a year later, state government is still struggling to get video gaming off the ground. This August, the Illinois Gaming Board bidded a contract to a company, Scientific Games International, to help develop a communications system for video gaming.

Earlier this month, the board retracted that contract and will redo the bidding process at a date to be determined.

“In evaluating the price portion of the proposals, miscalculations were made, due, in part, to assumptions made by the Gaming Board and by vendors that were not uniform and not clarified,” the Gaming Board said in a statement.

Once the board finalizes a contract, the state still has to complete construction and statewide installation of gaming machines.

A spokesman with the board said the delay could push back the launch date for video gaming until next July.

State Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mt. Vernon, wants the state agency and the Quinn administration to move with urgency on video gaming.

“Quite frankly, if we don’t have it up and running until July of next year and can’t sell additional bonding until July of next year…we will have failed in another construction season because we won’t have the bond money to pay for it,” he said.

But state Sen. Terry Link, D- Lake Bluff, said the Quinn administration has already begun selling bonds to help fund construction projects, using revenues from other sources.

“I’m not as concerned about it as (I would be) if it was a case where it would have held up all the bonding sales. Then, I would have been greatly concerned about it,” he said.

The $31-billion construction program Quinn inked into law last summer named several funding sources, including video gaming expansion, the private management of the Illinois State Lottery, online lottery receipts, hikes in alcohol taxes and upticks in motor vehicle fees.

Together, these sources were supposed to bring in $1 billion that would be used to borrow more money by issuing bonds, funding the slate of construction projects over several years. A legislative commission originally estimated that video gaming expansion would bring in between $280 million and $533 million.

But the original estimates assumed all eligible communities and the city of Chicago would “opt in” to video gaming expansion.

A recent memorandum from the Illinois Gaming Board indicated that 72 communities and 4 counties have banned video poker. The city of Chicago has also not allowed video gaming. Those omissions could mean at least a reduction of $100 million from the initial estimates.

But Link said estimates were deliberately conservative and expects video gaming to make a strong showing once machines are up and running.

“Even though these economic times are a little tough, I think you’ll see that the amount of money generated with video poker throughout the state will be a lot more positive, a lot more profitable than what we’re even estimating,” he said.

Jones said localities that ban video gaming machines will still get the benefit of public works projects that were funded from proceeds through those machines.

“The most frustrating thing is that every community that chooses to opt-out of this, those communities are going to benefit from the capitol bill and quite frankly, I think they ought to be paying part of the expenses,” he said.