Gambling in Illinois has a long and infamous history.
Havana, Illinois was known as Little Reno because of Al Capone's development of floating casinos on the Illinois River. In the mid- 1930s, the Nitti gang ran casino games in Calumet City and Cicero, and this continued under Accardo and Ricca in the 1950s. In 1953, state troopers raided 14 casinos and taverns in Mason County, ending gambling in that area. Eventually the Mafia influence on gambling in the Chicago area decreased and legal lotteries and riverboat gambling sprung up.
Illinois became the second state to authorize riverboat gambling, after Iowa, in February 1990, and the first riverboat casino opened in Alton in 1991. In June 1999, then-Gov. George Ryan changed the law to allow riverboat casinos to remain docked.
Though it seems as if Lake Michigan is choking on riverboat casinos, many of those casinos actually reside across the state line, in Indiana. In fact, there are only two casinos in Illinois that offer poker, and neither are on the Great Lake itself: Harrah's Metropolis Casino on the Ohio River in southern Illinois, and the Hollywood Casino in Aurora, on the Fox River, west of Chicago.
"Business is boomin'!" says Jeff Deuschler, dualrate supervisor for the Hollywood Casino.
"We get a wide variety of players, young to old retirees that come in on a daily basis - as well as some people who play professionally," says Neal Perry, director of casino operations for the Hollywood Casino.
Deuschler believes the skill of the average casino player, not the age, is different today. "I wouldn't say the crowd is younger. It's more amateur now - it used to be a subculture, now it's exposed to the general public. There's a huge influx of ESPN experts."
Tournaments at the Hollywood have caught on. "We hold tournaments every Wednesday, and we get a wide variety of players that come in for that," says Perry. "Male and female of all ages."
"We also offer what we call Marquee Premier Tournaments," says Perry. These tournaments are used as a marketing tool and are invitation-only. Players are invited through their casino host. Deuschler said that there are also single-table tournaments throughout the day on Sunday - and some Sundays, they get up to 10 in a day.
"Last year on Sundays we offered super satellites to get into the WPT's World Poker Championship." Perry said. "Entry was $60, with first place receiving $500 and entry into the regular, 80 player $500 buy-in tournament."
The winner of that tournament received the $25,000 buy-in to the World Poker Tour Championship, as well as the $500 entry fee and $2500 in expenses. Perry believes the future is bright for casino poker. "I think it will hang around for awhile. The younger crowd is developing into poker players. As long as television is televising, it will continue to build popularity."
Deuschler agrees.
"Momentum is going to subside a little, but it's created a lot of die-hard players. I don't ever foresee it going back
