Photo by Heather Schlitz: A man feeds $20 bills into a video gambling machine at Roch’s Place. The bar/grill is currently the only business in St. Joseph that operates gambling machines.
BY HEATHER SCHLITZ
During a Tuesday night St. Joseph Village Board meeting, trustees voted 3-2 against a motion that would’ve allowed gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores in the municipality to operate gambling machines.
Jack Flash, a chain of convenience stores with a location in St. Joseph, had pushed for the creation of a Package/Pour license that would’ve allowed the store to serve alcohol poured on store premises in addition to bottled alcohol.
In order to nab a video gambling license in Illinois, businesses must have a liquor license that allows them to serve alcohol that is consumed on-premises. Jack Flash currently only has a package liquor license and is restricted from operating video gambling machines.
Trustees worried that expanding gambling to businesses in town that currently only have package liquor licenses would damage the town’s image.
“My thoughts are that they (the gambling machines) are too trashy,” village trustee Max Painter, who voted against the package/pour license, said.
“I’m concerned about the branding of the community,” Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges, who cast the tie-breaking vote against package/pour, said. “We do allow it (gambling machines) for our restaurants. Those are very small, local restaurants and if they need a little bit of help to subsidize their business to make it, I want to make sure they have that opportunity. By adding that additional license classification, you’re opening it up for another business to do that.”
People attending the meeting said that amending the liquor license would increase the possibility of drinking and driving, allow too many businesses in the village to operate gambling machines and negatively influence the children who frequent convenience stores.
Lisa Wortman, co-owner of Jack Flash, showed the trustees a petition she claimed had more than 100 signatories in support of the package/pour license. Though she declined to make the petition viewable to the public, some trustees pointed out that many of the signatory’s addresses were from outside of St. Joseph.
“I didn’t have anyone come into my store saying they supported the gaming in the community,” Jim Wagner, village trustee and owner of Wagner Signs + Graphics, said. He also raised concerns that the gambling machines would drive away potential residents.
Wortman attempted to assuage the concerns of trustees and audience members, saying that Jack Flash would build a gambling section walled off from the rest of the store and that poured alcohol makes up less than 1% of their sales in other Jack Flash locations that operate gambling machines.
Roch’s Place is the only business in the village with a video gambling license and operates four gambling machines in a cramped space walled off from the rest of the bar and restaurant. The village received $12,408 in taxes from the Roch’s gambling machines in 2019, money that the mayor said has gone toward the stormwater fund.
A letter from the owners of Roch’s Place was read aloud during the meeting, where the owners expressed worries that allowing additional businesses to profit from video gambling would eat into the bar’s revenue as a small, family-owned business.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Fruhling-Voges said. “I’ve been tossing around with pros and cons for two months about what would be best for the community.”
