More racing coming to Collinsville Fairmont Park plans $50M investment

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at Fairmont Park in Collinsville Tuesday, telling horse racing fans that he had just signed a new expanded gaming law that will increase racing days at the horse track. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at Fairmont Park in Collinsville Tuesday, telling horse racing fans that he had just signed a new expanded gaming law that will increase racing days at the horse track. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close More racing coming to Collinsville 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

COLLINSVILLE — Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday said he was excited to implement the state’s gambling expansion law.

But it’s unclear when that will happen.

The law Pritzker signed last month will help fund a $45 billion, six-year infrastructure plan. It included adding a $1 per pack tax to cigarettes and was coupled with another bill doubling the state’s gas tax and increasing other driving fees to pay for horizontal infrastructure like roads and bridges and vertical infrastructure like public universities.

After watching a race at Fairmount Park in Collinsville on Tuesday, Pritzker told the crowd Illinois plans to increase the allotted 40 horse-racing days at the track to 100.

“We’re bringing more horses, more races, more days and that means more jobs,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker couldn’t say exactly when other gambling expansion projects — such as more video gambling, new casinos and sports wagering — would begin.

“We’ve got to kind of review everything before it gets installed,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure the right number of [gambling] positions are being put in. So I don’t want to put a timeline on it, but it will be as soon as we possibly can.”

The law legalizes sports betting and allows for six more casinos throughout Illinois, including one in Chicago. It also allows horse-racing tracks in Illinois, such as Fairmont Park, to add gambling options such as slot machines and table games.

Fairmount Park President Brian Zander said that will be a lifesaver for his Collinsville track.

“Essentially it’s really going to save the place,” Zander said. He said he anticipates investing $50 million in the operations at Fairmount Park, Illinois’ only horse-racing venue outside of the Chicago metro area.

“As you can see, we have a great crowd here today. That’s not the problem,” he said. “The problem is that we’re competing with race tracks in nearby states — Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky — where they have slot machines.”

He said that once the state rules are established, his race track will be able to add the same gambling options casinos offer.

“Table games and slots are exactly the same as they are for all the casinos,” Zander said. “So any kind of table game that’s allowed in a casino, whether it’s roulette, or 21, blackjack … we can do the same thing.”

The track is about 23 miles from Argosy Casino Alton. Open since 2004, the casino offers 23,000 square feet of gaming space with table games and more than 800 slot and video poker machines. Flooding this spring closed the casino for 45 days between May 3 and June 25.

Pritzker said he wasn’t worried about casino expansion talk in Indiana.

“This bill really brings back that industry to Illinois,” Pritzker said. “I think we can win against Indiana and other states that have been competing against us and winning up to now. We’re reversing that trend.”

This week Pritzker named Charles Schmadeke as the chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board. He also named Anthony Garcia to the five-member board next scheduled to meet on Thursday.

The Telegraph staff contributed to this story.