Despite some push back, video gaming provided extra revenue for cities

While some city council’s talk about limiting the number of video gaming parlors, the fact is the more gamblers lose, the more cash the city receives.

Even for small villages like Naplate and Utica, video gaming losses mean thousands of dollars of revenue. Cities and villages get five percent of the net income, or the difference between money gambled and won.

Ottawa’s take of the pot was $224,000 in 2015. Streator brought in $211,000 from gaming revenues. Both La Salle and Peru collected $156,000 in video gaming losses last year while Princeton just barely topped a thousand. Utica and Naplate’s take of gaming losses in 2015 were just under $50,000.

The state gets 25 percent of gaming losses with establishments housing the machines and companies owning the slot machines getting the rest of the pot.