City Council will not take action on video gambling until the Illinois Gaming Board establishes regulations for video gambling machines.

On July 13, Gov. Pat Quinn made video gambling terminals legal as a way to raise revenue for the $31 billion capital projects bill, which was approved July 13, and goes toward improving the state’s infrastructure.

As part of a compromise, the law allows local officials to ban video gambling within their jurisdiction or allows voters to seek a referendum to ban gambling.

Mayor John Inyart said the council has not received any suggestions to ban video gambling so far. He said he sees no apparent need to ban it, either.

According to the new law, a local government will share revenue generated from video gambling with the state.

Inyart said Charleston would probably have regulatory duties in overseeing local video gambling machines, which could deter the council from allowing video gambling in the city.

“State money isn’t given without any strings attached to it,” he said.

Inyart said he does not know how much money Charleston would receive from video gambling. He said he could not even provide a revenue estimate and cost estimate, which comes with regulation, at this point.

“Time will tell,” Inyart said.

Cities such as Naperville, Rosemont, Country Club Hills and Evanston have decided to ban video gambling, while a variety of other cities throughout Illinois have discussed a possible ban.

The Illinois Gaming Board recently missed its 60-day deadline to approve video gambling regulations.

Gene O’Shea, spokesman for the board, said the board has no set goal to release regulations, adding the deadline was “absolutely impossible” to meet.

He said the board received no additional funding or personnel to formalize regulations. The board has contacted the governor’s office in trying to receive extra help, O’Shea said.

The centralized computer system, which would connect each gambling terminal and track revenue from each site, is still being developed, he said.

He said that once the system is developed, the board would need to seek bidders for installing it.

O’Shea said he contacted the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, which oversees video gambling in Louisiana, and they told O’Shea that the bidding and implementation process took 18 months.

He said another issue is licensing. An employee of a bar, a video machine distributor or supplier, or video machine technician would all need to be licensed to operate the machines.

O’Shea said a bartender with a criminal record could not, by law, oversee the use of video poker machines while working.

Because of this, he said the board would have to conduct criminal background checks on everyone who applies for a license, which is likely to be thousands.

“It’s not like we have extra people to license 36,000 people,” O’Shea said.

Inyart said a variety of Charleston bars already have machines for entertainment purposes, adding the owners would have to make sure the machines are connected to the central computer system before using them for video gambling.

He said the council could also choose to ban video gambling if negative effects on the community start to appear.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions at this point,” Inyart said.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.