Rahm Emmanuel Is Thinking Like A Gambler About Gambling In Chicago
(source)–In a meeting with Crain’s editorial board to review the pension funding plan that he unveiled earlier today, Emanuel said he has long had “a love-hate relationship” with the idea of bringing a casino to the city proper, one that would compete with several riverboat casinos and other facilities in the suburbs.
“I’m (still) not enthusiastic,” he said, adding that he previously turned down two offers to include Chicago in state legislation to expand legal gambling in Illinois. What finally convinced him is the “$40 million a month” that Chicagoans spend gambling in Indiana—and the fact that fast-rising Chicago pension debt has placed Chicago in a difficult financial spot.
As disclosed earlier today, Emanuel has begun negotiating with state Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island, who is expected to sponsor a gambling package in the new General Assembly.
Riverboat Rahm! Rahm Emmanuel officially has gambler brain. It’s 630pm on Sunday and he’s in a big hole just like the rest of us. We’ve all been there. You’re looking at the board. You have a “love-hate” relationship with gambling, and the only way to keep the bookie(or the pension debt) away is to parlay the over in the sunday night game with two west coast NHL games and a few NBA props. It won’t work, but you have to try. That’s what Rahm is doing here. His term is up. He’s out of time to save his reputation and political future. He’s looking at the board just goes…ah fuck it, put a casino on the southeast side of the city. Respect and relate to the late night desperation play.
The real parlay here would be to legalize weed and sports gambling too. Hit all three and he’s collecting on Monday. I’ve been told that legalized sports gambling in Chicago would be great for Redline Radio. That was said by someone who hasn’t met us though. Ed hasn’t met a prop bet he didn’t love, WSD accidentally bet on the Packers on Sunday because he had to put in a bet while walking, and Carl can tell you who is reffing an NBA game and how that’ll impact the over/under. Going to go ahead and say that we’d piss away any profits.
PS: $40 Million dollars a month Chicagoans spend on gambling in Indiana is an INSANE number. That’s $480,000,000 per year, but the city debt is 48 billion(per google). And I guess my overall point is that I don’t know how people do math this big. Anything above like a standard mega bucks tickets and my brain can’t comprehend it. $480M/year for casino gambling and it’s like…okay we just need 100 more of those and we are gucci