Joliet video gambling operators face new rules, fees – The Herald-News

JOLIET A new fee and license for bars with video gaming machines goes into effect as another cafe-style gambling parlor is about to go to the city for approval.

Daisy's, a video gambling cafe planned for 18 S. Larkin Ave., could go to the city council for a vote at its July 5 meeting.

But it won't be subject to the new Class V license fees approved by the council last week because the application came before the fees were enacted, said Interim City Attorney Chris Regis.

The prospective owner plans to have painting parties and other events in addition to video gambling machines and alcohol, Regis said Monday.

Regis said the city developed a new ordinance regulating video gambling in part to avoid a proliferation of such businesses.

"A business that involves a vice like gambling has to be regulated," he said.

Daisy's will be the fourth cafe-style video gambling parlor in the city, Regis said.

At the time that the city's first video gambling cafes arrived in 2013, there was concern that Joliet would be flooded with such businesses and some applicants were turned down.

The new ordinance requires that no more than one permit for video gambling be allowed for any single shopping center, plaza or strip mall. It also requires that a business be operating for 120 days before getting a city permit for video gaming.

Operators must pay a $250 fee for the Class V license as well as a $250 fee for each video gambling machine.

No complaints about fees

The council last week also approved an increase in the application fee for any liquor license from $100 to the new rate of $750.

Councilman Pat Mudron was the lone no vote, saying he thought it was too much of an increase at once.

Mudron and other city officials, however, said they received no complaints about the proposed fees for lliquor licenses and video gambling before they were enacted.

"I didn't get a call," Mudron said. "I didn't get a call after I vote no, either, to say thank you."

Regis said the new city fees are more in line with what other communities charge.

The $100 fee for liquor license applications may go back to the 1980s, Regis said, noting that one veteran city staffer had told him that it may have been set during the term of the late Mayor John Bourg.

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Joliet video gambling operators face new rules, fees - The Herald-News