Urbana Gambling

After recently approving a new gambling licence at a local grocery store, the city has put the breaks on new ones. From the News-Gazette yesterday:

Mayor: Liquor code needs 'long-overdue updates'; issuing suspended
In support of a proposal from Liquor Commissioner and Mayor Diane Marlin, Urbana city council members voted in committee Monday to move forward with a plan to suspend the issuing of future video gambling licenses.This comes a week after council members voted 4-2 to approve giving Urbana's Save-A-Lot store a Class A "pour" liquor license, which would have allowed them to apply for a G-1 license in order to have up to five video gambling terminals inside.

In a memo to council members, Marlin said the city's current liquor code and state law "did not foresee or contemplate grocery stores, liquor stores and other venues applying for 'pour' liquor licenses ... as a means for placing gaming terminals on their premises."
...
She went to the council for support, despite the fact she can unilaterally make decisions on the liquor code as liquor commissioner without the it's consent. But it's been a tradition of this mayor to consult the council.

Part of figuring out what those "best policies" will be might require city staff to assess "whether gaming machines that we have permitted to be installed have had any deleterious effect on problem gambling" in the city, council member Eric Jakobsson said.

Full article here. The mayor's memo to the City Council spelled out her concerns concisely:

After much reflection, I believe it is in the best interest of the community to bring an ordinance to Committee of the Whole that directs me, as the Local Liquor Control Commissioner, to suspend acceptance and processing of applications for Class G-1 liquor licenses until we complete the overall review and update of our Liquor Ordinance. The G-1 liquor licenses are for gaming terminals in established businesses.

The City’s current liquor code and state law did not foresee or contemplate grocery stores, liquor stores, and other venues applying for “pour” liquor licenses such as the City’s Class A, B, and BB liquor licenses as a means for placing gaming terminals on their premises. I believe this suspension is required to give the City time to make long-overdue updates to our liquor code and to clarify what is best for the community related to video gaming. We expect the liquor code revisions to take several months.

The suspension would not affect establishments that already possess a G-l license or applications for any other class of liquor license, including G-2.

I would appreciate your support for this ordinance. I believe it is important for the Mayor/City Council to jointly take this action.

Full memo available here on the City's website. The News-Gazette had a brief blurb on the memo here.


[UPDATE 4/5/2019: A couple additional links. The vote described above was at the Committee of the Whole and passed during the Regular City Council meeting this week 6-0. The News-Gazette had coverage of that here and an editorial on the gambling issue here.]