Pretend you are a legislator.

It is very highly unlikely you will read each bill. Actually, that is impossible as the deadline for passage out of each house approaches.

In the House, you don’t even know the order in which the bills will be called anymore.

It’s whenever Speaker Mike Madigan decides. (It wasn’t like that before Madigan. There was an actual calendar from which the bills were called in numerical order each day.)

Yesterday, the Illinois State Senate amended what is commonly called the “video poker” bill. It’s really about the slot machining of Illinois.

Terry Link

Here’s the summary that would have been on your computer screen about Senate Bill 1738, sponsored by Lake County’s Terry Link:

Replaces everything after the enacting clause with the introduced bill with the following changes: defines “electronic card” (and removes a cross-reference to the Illinois Administrative Code); provides that the central communications system vendor may be licensed as a video gaming terminal manufacturer or a video gaming terminal distributor, or both, but in no event shall the central communications system vendor be licensed as a video gaming terminal operator;

provides that the Board shall not permit the development of information or the use by any licensee of gaming device or individual game performance data;

provides that nothing in the Act shall inhibit or prohibit the Board from the use of gaming device or individual game performance data in its regulatory duties;

requires the Board to adopt rules to ensure that all licensees are treated and all licensees act in a non-discriminatory manner and develop processes and penalties to enforce those rules;

adds language authorizing the Illinois Gaming Board to adopt rules establishing standards for advertising video gaming;

removes language prohibiting the Board from disseminating information that is specific to individual licensed locations (and removes corresponding changes to the Freedom of Information Act); and,

in provisions amending the Criminal Code of 2012, provides that video gaming terminals for sale to a licensed distributor or operator (rather than a licensed establishment, licensed fraternal establishment, licensed veterans establishment, or licensed truck stop establishment) under the Video Gaming Act are exempt from seizure.

Effective immediately.

In the form legislators see the description, it is one fully packed paragraph. I have cut it up to make it easier to read.

Below is the roll call:

The Senate roll call on Senate Bill 1738.

Anita Bedell of ICAAAP urged the McHenry County Board to continue prohibiting video poker in unincorporated establishments

Locally, Senator Pam Althoff voted in favor, while her McHenry County colleagues Dan Duffy and Karen McConnaughay voted against the measure.

The Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems (ILCAAP) offers the following commentary:

Wednesday, the Senate passed SB 1738, which hides information about video gambling at individual establishments from the public examination. The vote on SB 1738 was 35 Yes and 15 NO.

SB 1738 also changes the video gambling act to allow the company that has the contract for the Central Communications System (Scientific Games) to also manufacture video gambling machines. This is a conflict of interest.