News Flash

The issue of lifting the prior ban on video gaming was brought to the Village Board for consideration by businesses in August 2018. After extensive discussion, the Board of Trustees voted to permit video gaming for a trial period beginning April 4, 2019 under two conditions:

• A non-binding advisory referendum question on video gaming would be placed on the March 17^th, 2020 ballot for consideration; and,
• In the absence of further Board Action or legislation, video gaming in Lombard would have a sunset clause, under which video gaming would automatically be prohibited after June 30, 2020

At the Village Board Meeting on November 7, 2019, two businesses spoke during public comment to request that the Board of Trustees consider rescheduling the March 2020 video gaming non-binding advisory referendum question and the automatic “sunset” of video gaming scheduled for June 30, 2020.

The video gaming trial period (from April 4, 2019 – June 30, 2020) was initially proposed to permit video gaming on a temporary basis for the purposes of observation. Businesses have requested a change in the dates of the non-binding advisory referendum question and automatic sunset of video gaming due to the delayed approval of pending video gaming applications by the State of Illinois. Since April 2019, the Village of Lombard has issued ten local Video Gaming licenses. Eight of the businesses approved for local licenses requested required approval of State licenses by the Illinois Gaming Board. The State of Illinois approved its first two licenses to Lombard business on November 7^th with six applications remaining pending before the State and two businesses not yet having applied to the State.

At the November 7^th meeting, Trustee Bill Ware requested that the Village Board consider the following course of action:

• At the upcoming December 5^th Board of Trustees meeting, consider an ordinance to repeal the non-binding advisory referendum question, currently scheduled for March 17^th (with the intent to move the referendum question to November 3, 2020).
• Commit to placing an ordinance on the March 19, 2020 Village Board Agenda to reschedule the non-binding advisory referendum question on video gaming to November 3, 2020. The formal ordinance to set the advisory referendum question on the November 3^rd ballot cannot be formally discussed by the Village Board until after March 17^th election date.
• At the upcoming December 5^th Board of Trustees meeting, consider an ordinance to change the sunset date of video gaming, absent further legislation, from June 30^th to December 31^st, 2020.

Four board members (majority consensus) confirmed their interest in discussing the above requests at the Village Board of Trustees Meeting on December 5^th.

The Board of Trustees will consider the proposed ordinances to amend the automatic sunset of video gaming and repeal the March 17^th non-binding advisory referendum question on first reading, at a regularly scheduled Board of Trustees Meeting, on Thursday, December 5^th. Final action and second reading would not anticipated to occur until December 19^th. Formal action to reschedule the non-binding advisory referendum question cannot be considered until after March 17^th.

The ordinances being considered deal exclusively with the scheduled dates for the non-binding advisory referendum question and automatic sunset of video gaming, not the merits of whether video gaming should or should not be permitted within the Village of Lombard on a permanent basis. Meetings take place at Village Hall, 255 E. Wilson Ave., at 7 p.m., and are open to the public. If you cannot attend these meetings and would like to share your opinions on the matter, please email videogaming@villageoflombard.org.