Comment by tofof | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tofof | Hacker News Reader

It really is a blight. Everywhere you go (other than Chicago) there are sleazy-looking banners offering video gambling. Even unexpected places. Literally every strip mall I'm aware of has at least one, regardless of the income tier the strip mall targets. Even the mom & pop diner just off the highway now has its windows plastered with adverts for video slots and video poker.

Searching for video gambling will only turn up the dedicated establishments (it doesn't turn up that diner, nor many dozens of bars) but you can still see how ridiculous it is from searching any downstate community.

https://www.google.com/maps/search/video+gambling/@40.116774...

Here, the same chain has locations barely a thousand feet from one another, and they're not even the only dedicated dens in that immediate area.

Bar - doesnt show up when searching 'video gambling': https://www.google.com/maps/@40.117862,-88.2040812,3a,75y,97...

Family Diner - every window is now covered with gambling advertisements, but street view is from 2015, before they converted. Still useful for understanding how persvasive the spread is and the types of businesses that are converting to stay competetive. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1329083,-88.2190425,3a,75y,6...

Forest Park (my home for less than a year now) voted to prohibit video gambling in November, two years after it had been voted in. I'm not sure what the impact has been, but perhaps it could serve as a model for other municipalities looking to do the same thing.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-vk...

Welcome to the neighborhood. It's unlawful in neighboring Oak Park as well, but unfortunately fully legal in Berwyn.

Berwyn and Cicero have always been the spots to do sketchy stuff. It would be strange if that were to change now.

BERR-WYN!

Is that a 90s Chicago talk radio reference? (I think it is?)

Svengoolie, if I remember right.

Oh, wow, I had no idea. Glad I asked.

Also known as Son of Svengoolie. The original Svengoolie retired in the 70s. I don't recall BERWIN being a bit back then (though that was terribly long ago).

I suspect, though I have no proof, that he at least partially inspired the Joe Flaherty SCTV character Count Floyd/Floyd Robinson.

Actually, Rick Koz is the original and current Son of Svengoolie character. He's been on two or three different stations since the 70's I think, but it's the same guy.

Jerry Bishop played the character in its original run. Way up on channel 32. Wiki says 1970-1973.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_G._Bishop

Jerry Bishop (the original Svengoolie) started the BERWYN gag.

Out where I'm at in Campton Hills we're seeing business owners asking for the ban to be lifted. I hope it isn't:

https://www.kcchronicle.com/2019/01/11/campton-hills-residen...

I can imagine they are. The owner of a reasonably busy restaurant/bar in my hometown said he makes more on the little slot corner per month than he does selling food. It's insane. And you know it's not the people with loads of money laying around losing their money to them.

The owner of a reasonably busy restaurant/bar in my hometown said he makes more on the little slot corner per month than he does selling food.

That's the reason that every† bar, gas station, even supermarket in Nevada has a slot parlor.

I see these people playing slot machines at Albertson's and just shake my head.

† Except Boulder City, the one place in Nevada where gambling is illegal.

I know the owner of a relatively large family-run restaurant, and apparently the few video slot machines they have in a small back room make more profit than the food.

well, food's always been a looser, it spoils and has to be well prepared. drinks on the other hand. . .. If you're not selling vices on the side, you're doing it the hard way.

Vices! That could be anything

it is, smokes, gambling, huka, beer, soda, weed, even caffine to some extent. <- none of that shit goes bad. You see this in super expensive places in cities. Everything is a bar or weed store, because the margins just don't allow people to sell only food and still pay rent.

A good rule of thumb is that if an establishment is based on a name (like "Penny's" or "Dotty's") and doesn't have any other indication of what its business is (and obviously isn't a bar), then it's a gambling joint.

Sounds like they've turned Illinois into a circle of hell, but I'm not sure which one.

Video gambling didn't turn Illinois in a circle of hell - Chicago politics turned the entire state into a circle of hell. Probably a good 90-95% geographically in Illinois would love to kick Chicago/Cook County out of the state.

The Chicagoland metro makes up 75% of Illinois' population. Illinois would just be a corn colony without Chicago. But I will agree with you that Illinois is, politically speaking, a mismanaged dumpster fire and has been for decades in large part due to the Chicago-style patronage system.

Thanks, now I understand what all those "Debby's" storefronts were when I visited my hometown over the holidays.

a fellow urbana-ite?

Emma’s/lacys/etc was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this headline- they are everywhere.

I’m a little west of you (BloNo), and there are quite a few named “Emma’s Place” here. I only noticed because that’s my daughter’s name and she was a bit fascinated at first, until I told her what they were.

On an unrelated note, as a non-American, it's stunning to see how wide those roads are, how big those parkings are, and the amount of SUVs and pickup trucks. I mean, that's kind of the American stereotype, but it calls my attention to see that it's actually true. (Speaking about the last link in particular.)

Heh - i actually live near there! The video gambling definitely has fizzed out rather than exploding. The beginnings of the charts & data show exponential growth at first but things got linear. When this first happened of course I would throw in a few bucks when out for a beer with my pops or whatever. Occasionally you double your 20 bucks or whatever and can buy the next round of drinks. However, it's not too popular and most people arent really interested.

Legalized sports betting in real time however would be different. I'm not a big gambler but love sports and analytics. Could definitely see myself throwing some money here or there. It's pretty easy to bet against the bulls / white sox / blackhawks right now, they all suck ass.

Keep in mind that restaurant is on the outskirts of Urbana and footsteps away from I-74 in a very rural part of Illinois. It's a college town, but that's a couple miles away from the campus.

Most Illinoisans live in or around Chicago. Chicago has big streets too, but does not look like Urbana:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.970376,-87.7207679,3a,75y,6....

That particular restaurant has a larger parking lot than most restaurants its size due to its location literally adjacent to the interstate highway.

The nearby road is an artery that connects to the interstate; most roads are not the 5-total-lane configuration (though that is indeed the most common configuration for major thoroughfares).

A fair comparison to tptacek's example of Chicago residential streets would be more like: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1148295,-88.2320852,3a,75y,1... or perhaps https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1114168,-88.2121028,3a,75y,2...

Or a look at the dense commercial zone supported by the University of Illinois campus: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1102513,-88.2296903,3a,75y,4...

That said, SUVs are now more purchased than sedans, and scenes like https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1102414,-88.230319,3a,15y,34... are the norm.

The prevalence of busses in street views of Urbana should also be considered unusual. Because of the university, Champaign-Urbana has an exceptional (for the US) bus service. It only takes 30 minutes to travel 3 miles (5 km), with only a 30 minute wait between pickups: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Springfield+%26+Kenwood+(SE+...

Regarding parking lots, everything from https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1172443,-88.205592,3a,75y,31... to more dense 'downtown' areas like https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1177271,-88.2417685,3a,75y,1... are typical.

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