Here comes another gambling expansion bill.
For Illinois lawmakers gambling expansion never seems to go away. With Illinois financial woes it’s no surprise with the current push for gambling expansion. In a 12/7 interview on WBBM-AM’s Noon Business Hour Gerald Roper President & CEO, Chicagoland Chamber OF Commerce discussed the advantages of Chicago’s Block 37 along with other possible downtown casino locations. Looking at Chicago’s landscape a State Street casino would benefit many downtown businesses. Forty million people from outside Chicago come to this area every year. Tourism would get a boost allowing more tax dollars received from out of state visitors
Block 37 located on State Street
Illinois politicians have put the Chicago area behind the eight ball when it comes to gaming tax revenues. According to the “American Gaming Association” the Chicagoland area is the third largest gaming market in the country. Taking a closer look northwest Indiana is receiving a large chunk of the gaming revenues. With gaming issues Illinois politicians say “they want to do the right thing for their citizens”. Unfortunately their votes end up turning into financial gains for Indiana.
Horseshoe Hammond with downtown Chicago in the backround.
For the poker player the most important part of the new gambling expansion bill is the increase in casino gaming positions. The current bill allows existing riverboat casinos to expand to 1,600 positions in 2013. With the exception of Hollywood Aurora and Harrah’s Metropolis casinos opened their poker rooms as other gaming revenues declined. The Des Plaines casino that currently is under construction has no plans for a poker room. This could change with this new gambling expansion bill. If this bill passes Harrah’s Joliet will likely to be operating the state’s largest poker room.
Canterbury Downs
Politicians missed another opportunity to have poker rooms at Illinois horse racing facilities. Minnesota’s Canterbury Downs is a good example on how poker rooms can be a perfect fit for horse racing facilities. Florida was been successful adding poker rooms to their dog tracks. Pennsylvania and West Virginia have recently added poker rooms to horse racing facilities. Illinois and Indiana casino poker rooms had combined revenues over 70 million in 2009. Most Illinois race tracks could have poker rooms up and running quickly and economically. From a tax standpoint this makes a lot of sense, Unfortunately politicians have never considered having poker rooms at racing facilities.
You're not the only unlucky one in poker
Re-printed courtesy of our content partner Ante Up Magazine.
Misery loves company. I’m pretty sure whoever coined this phrase just might have been a poker player. This is why most players spend so much time sharing bad-beat stories and hardly ever discuss their suckouts. The beats usually focus on all-in pots where we had the best of it at some point in the hand and our opponent makes a better hand to felt us.
We also know players who just seem to “run good.” We think they fare so much better than we do and they don’t suffer the same agony we do. Their hands hold when ours don’t. If they’re behind in a hand, they always seem to get there.
I’ve caught myself feeling this way, wondering why I can’t run like them, if even just for one day. I’ve even found myself watching closely when one of these players is in a big hand and even if I like the person, I get some kind of enjoyment from watching them get the money in good and losing the hand. It humanizes them and makes me realize they actually deal with the same issues as me. I’m not happy they lose, but it provides some relief that I’m not the only one going through this torture.
Here are some of my thoughts about what happens when I play and how awesome it must be to be my opponents.
• If they have any kind of draw, they complete it.
• If we get all the chips in preflop, they’re always a favorite, whether they’re ahead or not.
• If they bluff all-in with air on the flop, running cards will come to beat me.
• If I have ace-king and they have ace-jack, I’m a 70-30 favorite, yet a jack or straight comes 100 percent of the time.
• Every time I have kings, an ace flops.
• And most important, I’m the unluckiest poker player in the world.
POLL: Sexiest Woman In Poker
Chicago Poker Club has something in the works to celebrate Chicago's sexiest women in poker. "The works" could be coming in January, or in June... in the meantime, courtesy of our content partner at Scotty Clark Poker, let's talk about the sexiest women in all of poker. Reprinted with permission:
Scotty Clark Poker wants to know your most valuable poker opinions. Vote in our first POLL in the right hand column.
This is the first of four polls and the polls will include 16 ladies for the title of
Sexiest Woman in Poker History
Please leave comments at the end of this post, and on Scotty's site, to nominate future candidates.
Criteria: All international female players, television hosts, site professionals, celebrities and media reporters. Any female very active in poker. The top two finishers in each of the four polls will advance.
Opinion. The best players should be credited for long-term staying power...
Liv Boeree is 26 years old and is from the UK. Born in Kent, she studied physics and astrophysics at the University of Manchester. In April of 2010, Liv Boeree won EPT San Remo for a whopping €1,250,000 Boeree left Absolute Poker to sign with Poker Stars this year. Liv is also known as "Iron Maiden" and she loves her heavy metal.