Is the Illinois Racing Board taking business lessons from the film “Goodfellas?”
In that world of organized crime chronicled so brilliantly by director Martin Scorsese, actor Ray Liotta portrays mobster Henry Hill. He explains the business mantra succinctly as follows: (I have condensed the idea to remove some choice terms.) “Business bad? … pay me. Oh, you had a fire? … pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? … pay me.”
You get the idea. They don’t care about your problems, they just want their money.
That’s an approach the Racing Board tried using with Arlington International Racecourse in Arlington Heights, leaning on them so the track would add casino gambling. The pressure from the racing board, or incentive for the track, depending on which side you’re on, was to potentially deny them any of the 68 dates for racing sought for Arlington. The board ultimately gave approval for the dates.
Read more of Randy Blaser’s column here.
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