Six weeks after approving the first live gaming cafe in the village of Bourbonnais, trustees discussed putting limits on how many will be allowed.
The discussion took place last Wednesday at the trustees’ Community and Economic Development Committee.
During that meeting, they approved advancing proposals for two more gaming cafes.
Ordinances for both requesting special use permits and liquor licenses are on Monday’s agenda of the trustees meeting.
The village’s planning commission recommended advancing the proposals of GEM Management and Wash N Winnie’s of Manteno.
Ryan Magruder, owner of GEM Management, said this would be the first live gaming for the company. Magruder and his wife, Abby, own Flight 102, which offers food and beverages. They also have gaming machines on location.
The gaming cafe, named Smart Play, would be located on William Latham Drive next to the Magruder’s Smart Wash laundromat and dry cleaning businesses.
Winnie’s currently has 25 gaming cafes from Rockford to Watseka, according to planning commission documents.
There are 11 Winnie’s located in Kankakee County, according to Mike Pinski, who attended Wednesday’s meeting. His wife, Michelle, is president of the business.
If trustees adopt the ordinances, these would be the village’s second and third gaming cafes.
Planning Commission Chairman Mark Argyelan told the trustees there are some concerns from commission members about moving forward in the future.
He talked about receiving three calls from people interested in opening Bourbonnais gaming cafes.
“I told them they needed to contact the village,” Argyelan said.
“There are going to be others coming hot and heavy. The members of the commission are hoping that the [trustees] would take a serious look at this.
“We don’t want to become the Midwest [version] of Las Vegas.”
Bourbonnais village administrator Mike Van Mill attended the planning commission meeting.
“It seemed to me that the planning commission was suggesting a message be brought to the board that they recommended looking at this,” Van Mill said.
Looking at how some communities are doing would help guide village officials, Van Mill said.
“It seems to me the effective way to do this is limiting the number of liquor licenses. … If we’re looking at limitations we would go along with what some of the other communities are doing and limiting the number of licenses for them,” Van Mill said.
Kankakee Mayor Chris Curtis said they have a cap of six licenses for gaming cafes.
In Bradley, Mayor Mike Watson said there were five or six in the village when he took office.
If any of them close, the license would go back to the village, he said. He does not see his administration approving such licenses in the future.
“I’m not a fan of gaming cafes. I think they prey on people who shouldn’t be playing for economic reasons,” Watson said.
Van Mill said he will look into the matter and bring his findings back to a future economic and community development meeting.
