Chicago Mayor Proposes City Owned Casino

Mayor Richard Daley along with Governor Rod Bagojevich and several other state and local legislators want to make Chicago the first city in the nation to own and operate a casino. Advocates of Chicago's city owned casino plan, hope to use the revenue from the casino to revive a broken transportation system that has been ailing the city for years. House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is pushing for a vote on the city owned Chicago casino as early as December 17, told the Daily Herald that a Chicago city owned casino is the last resort for bailing out Chicago's bus and train agencies before a financial "doomsday" early next year.

Not everyone believes that the city owned Chicago casino is a good idea. Head of Chicago's Crime Commission, James Wagner, told NPR that he's not just worried about what a Casino might do to the city of Chicago he's also worried about what the city of Chicago might do to a casino. Considering the recent intense federal investigation over the cities corruption of a program to rent work trucks that resulted in more than 40 convictions, that is a valid point.

The Chicago FBI website lists other recent issues with corruption within the Chicago city government which include what the FBI referred to as Operation Silver Shovel. As a result of this operation six Chicago Alderman, and 12 other city officials were convicted of accepting bribes.

One other item of great concern is that gambling and organized crime historically go hand and hand. Many would say the same about Chicago's checkered past. Would the introduction of a city owned casino in Chicago bring back the likes of Al Copone or the notorious mob outfits in the 1970's whose hands were all over Las Vegas? Author Richard Lindberg, a Chicago resident and historian, inferred to NPR in an interview that he isn't so sure that it wouldn't.