Slots in Lakewood – Part 1

While I was on vacation, the Lakewood Village Board was faced with the question of whether to allow slot machines.

Trustee Paul Serwatka sent our three emails that seem worth sharing, even though they are of mailing historic interest now.

The first one, sent on February 10th, alerted constituents of the issue:

Paul Serwatka

I wanted to give everyone a “heads-up” to an Agenda Item, that I expect will be of particular interest to many residents, which may be voted upon at our village board meeting, next Tuesday, February 14th 7:00pm at Turnberry Country Club.

In November, the board discussed a request from the owners of Turnberry Country Club to consider granting them a video-gaming license. Granting this license would require changing current ordinances which prohibit video gaming within the village.

While granting this license would provide an additional source of revenue for Turnberry Country Club, as well as an additional potential source of revenue for our village, it would also be cause for several obvious concerns as well.

The consensus of our November discussion, as I remember it, was that staff would gather information from surrounding municipalities who allow gaming (such as Lake In The Hills) and the board would then, at a future date, discuss; the provisions of their ordinances, the positives and negatives from their perspectives, any lessons they may have learned, etc..

From there, we would decide on if, and how, we wanted to proceed.

This evening (Friday, Feb 10), I received my board packet for Tuesday’s meeting and on this agenda is an ordinance, already drafted, to permit gaming within the village of Lakewood.

While this ordinance will be discussed, it is on the agenda as such that it is able to be voted on, and put into effect, as well. A copy of this memo and ordinance can be found on page 122 of the board packet at the link below.

If you have any strong feelings on this issue, you may want to attend Tuesday’s meeting to voice them. If you are not able to attend, you can simply reply to this notice and I will be sure your voice is heard.

February 14, 2017 Board Packet (See Page 122)

Your thoughts, questions and concerns are always valued and always welcome.


Comments

Slots in Lakewood – Part 1 — 1 Comment

  1. Gentleman’s clubs would be a better option for Lakewood, in my opinion.

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