After a rezoning petition for a plot of land supposed to host a casino was passed by the city of Danville, now the plan for the upcoming gambling venue’s establishment needs to get the Illinois Gaming Board’s approval.
Danville’s Mayor Ricky Williams has explained that the process will take some time in case that the state’s gambling regulatory body approves the plans for the casino. As he explained, the tough part about that is the fact that neither the applicant nor the city would know exactly how long the approval process would take because the gambling watchdog has never approved another casino so far.
Danville Development LLC, which is set to develop the casino venue, has projected a startup timetable of around 9 months once the project is given the green light by the Illinois Gaming Board.
The city’s Mayor has projected that the casino venue is likely to grow over the course of 30 years. That growth includes two different proposed locations – one on Eastgate Drive, which was eventually chosen to host the project, and one near I-74, which, however, was overpriced for the casino, so the developers were unwilling to pay the four or five times the actual value of the location, no matter how good it was.
Casino Establishment Will Provide Fresh Money to Danville City’s Coffers
Danville’s City Council voted 5 to 1 in favor of the rezoning petition, despite the Planning and Zoning Commission has called its members to vote against it. Still, many members claimed a conflict of interest existed on the commission, who had been known for some links to the land near I-74.
The first-term mayor said that instead of recusing himself from the case like he was supposed to do, Mr. Williams preferred to only speak why the location was a bad idea.
Despite the controversy, the casino project is set to provide the city of Danville with some growth opportunities if it turns out a successful investment. According to some analysts’ projections, the city coffers could get additional revenue of about $6 million. The Mayor of the city has explained that the best part of it was the fact it was progressive and different stages of the casino’s construction and operation would make the project meet certain economic benchmarks that could eventually see the casino move off of the chosen site to a different location.
Recently, it was reported that Eric Stamps, a local citizen who in 2019 ran as a Democrat for the House of Delegates has formed a political action committee to oppose the casino venue proposed by Caesars Entertainment. The PAC was formed after he spent a few months establishing a coalition to oppose the casino project that the American gambling giant has unveiled to city and state authorities.
Mr. Stamps revealed several concerns regarding the establishment of a casino venue in the city of Danville, including whether Caesars Entertainment intends to hire local residents for the venue or mostly bring in some of its current employees. As revealed by the gambling operator, Caesars officials intended to pick employees from the region for its new casino.
