There was a time way back when all casinos in Illinois had to cruise on water. So in Vermilion County, there were whispers about Lake Vermilion. But those days are long gone, and now Danville looks to be closer to a casino at the more recently planned location: 204 Eastgate Drive, between Main Street and I-74, and ¾’s of a mile from the I-74 Lynch Road exit.
State legislation is calling for five new state casinos. And as Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr points out, one proposed for Danville would simply be THE PLACE TO GO, unlike all the competition they have with the ones around Chicago.
AUDIO: Now our nearest competitors are Indianapolis and Peoria, which are both an hour-and-a-half or more away. We believe that total revenues could be in excess of 60 million dollars or more per year, which mean the city shares a little more than six million dollars of that.
The difference now is a change in how the state is doing it. A preliminary license is issued, and the operation gets what you might call a tryout. So as the mayor explains “if you build it….and do things right….the final license….will come.”
AUDIO: First you have to pass what’s called a suitability hearing or suitability assessment, once that’s done you build a casino basically. If you then build it and do things properly and operate within the law over a certain period of time, then they issue you your final license.
Mayor Williams is thinking that there could be an operating casino at 204 Eastgate Drive by Thanksgiving or Christmas of 2022.
