Bookies going way of numbers racket?

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled this week that states ought to have the right to come up with legal ways for people to place bets on ballgames without having to worry about the long arm of the law treating them like criminals.

HARRIS: Tried to take Ill. lead on issue

Yet I can’t help but think that for many people, the idea of going to an officially-sanctioned betting parlor to place a few bucks down on a sports event won’t have much appeal.

FOR THEM, THE notion of the bookie and the illicit nature of their act IS the whole point. The last thing they want to do is partake in an event in which the state would take a cut of the proceeds – and would be responsible for guaranteeing that the prize is actually paid off if they win.

Because for the kind of people inclined to want to place bets on sports events, the motivation is the payoff. They want to win the prize, and likely could care less about the ball game itself.

So long as they beat the spread, who actually wins is irrelevant. Just like in the early days of riverboat casinos when some thought people would enjoy the idea of a cruise while placing bets – only to find out people only cared about the bet and those “boats” are all now land-based.

As for those people who all those years showed their devotion to Chicago Cubs baseball placed a bet annually in Las Vegas that their favorite ballclub would win the World Series? Suckers!!!

SO I WAS somewhat amused to hear some people react to the Supreme Court’s ruling by saying that sports betting could actually increase interest in sports events. Not likely.

Unless you want to think of sports fans as the ultimate chumps eager to waste their time and throw away their money by playing the odds of how a particular ballgame goes.

I don’t know how Illinois will wind up structuring a sports betting system, although I’m sure our political people will be greedy enough to want to have another revenue stream to tax. They’ll probably also try defining the concept as being something similar to the Illinois State Lottery and all those games people can play on the potential promise of a payoff. State Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Harvey -- himself a one-time professional football player -- already has a bill introduced on the issue.

How many placed bet, for kicks, and wound up winning?

Fantasies of being set for life financially, just by picking the right set of numbers.

I MAKE THE lottery comparison because I can recall my own time as a full-time police reporter-type person – which was in the late 1980s and I can recall the occasional stories I’d write about busts and raids that were conducted related to the “illegal lottery,” which is what once was commonly known as the numbers racket.

You play your number and place your bet with a bookie – who in some cases would take as little as a nickel bet, with the potential payoff of $30-40 if you got the right set.

Or nothing, if you were in the majority who didn’t get the right number.

Of course, you’d have to take the chance that the bookie was an honorable sort who’d actually pay up on the people who “won” and wasn’t just counting on all the nickels of losers to add up to dollars that would enrich themselves.

YOU MIGHT WONDER why anybody would keep playing numbers when they could just plop down a dollar or two for lottery tickets and a potentially larger prize. Yet for some people, the official lottery came with too many rules and too much structure and regulation. The illicit overtones are what make it worth doing, while those who prefer a so-called "legitimate" bookmaker probably aren't going to bet enough to make it worth anyone's while financially.

How sport, and gambling really don't mix

Gamblers preferred the informal and unofficial nature of the old numbers racket. Just as I’m sure they’re going to prefer to place bets through a bookie on whatever basketball or football game catches their attention.

So for all the people who think that sports betting will make the state of Illinois wealthy (or at least capable of paying all its bills in a timely maner), I suspect that listeners of the old WMAQ-AM radio had better odds of achieving wealth.

Remember back when one could win a prize if the station called you, and your unsolicited response was, “WMAQ’s gonna make me rich!”

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Perhaps a blackjack dealer is the key to resolving our governmental finances

It never fails to amaze (or amuse) me the degree to which our government officials think that gambling is the key to resolving its financial woes.

Should Illinois govt become a bookie?

Do our officials secretly fantasize about being blackjack dealers, thinking they’re capable of bringing in the big bucks that way to come up with the cash to pay our government’s bills.

THE FACT THAT some people wind up digging themselves into deeper holes through their gambling losses – which potentially causes more problems that government agencies could wind up having to deal with – doesn’t seem to factor into their line of thought.

It just seems like the lights and the jingles and the overall garishness of a casino environment is too enticing for political people to turn away from.

Not that I’m overly moralistic. If people want to piss away their money with games of chance, I suppose that’s their right. I’m just not enthused at the thought of having to cover their losses in life.

And yes, our society is only as strong as its weakest individuals. Meaning we can’t just take a hard line and say to let the losers suffer.

HARRIS: Thinks the answer is 'yes'

GAMBLING WAS UP for discussion in recent days. What with the Illinois Senate’s gaming committee (‘gaming’ is for people who want to think of fun, while ‘gambling’ allegedly is for fuddy-duddys who worry too much about the downside of life) meeting Tuesday at the Bilandic Building to talk about ideas from state Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Harvey.

He wants Illinois to pass legislation that would permit sports betting in Illinois and would create an Internet platform by which Illinois residents could place bets.

Basically, cutting out the bookie and allowing one to place their bets with the state. No word on how Illinois would handle its collections from big-time losers.

How much money could Chicago win off Loyola loss

But just think of how many people would have been eager to place bets last Saturday either for, or against, Loyola University as they went into their semi-final NCAA matchup against Michigan.

HOW MUCH REVENUE could Illinois have taken in by people eager to place a bet on the Ramblers? How much could the Loyola loss have benefitted Illinois? How much does Illinois want to benefit from its residents (a.k.a., suckers) who bet with their hearts and not with their heads?

McCarthy betting his mayoral bid ...

Of course, there are federal laws that already restrict gambling on sports events. Harris’ measure would only be crafted into an actual bill if those laws are repealed – which some seem to think has a real chance of happening.

One realizes that this is Illinois’ vision of trying to raise revenue through peoples’ gambling losses. Which means that Chicago municipal government also has its own schemes in the works.

Take Garry McCarthy, the former Chicago Police superintendent who now is running for mayor in the 2019 election cycle. He’s making one of his campaign talking points the need for the city to have a full-blown casino.

... on enhancing O'Hare environment ...

WHICH ISN’T NEW. Rahm Emanuel has pushed for that, along with Richard M. Daley before him. But while they often talked about a casino near the downtown area, McCarthy would want it to be on the premises of O’Hare International Airport. He envisions all those travelers making stopovers in Chicago spending the time they have to kill at the casino. Their financial losses while in Chicago could benefit the city.

McCarthy even talks, at least during a Sunday morning radio interview on WBBM-AM, about all the layers of airport security as being a plus. It means anybody wishing to gambling will have had to clear security. Less chance of riff-raff managing to slip in and hang around there.

... with a gambling atmosphere

Although it makes me remember a time I was in a restaurant that had slot machines, and the owner advised me I could win enough money to pay for my meal IF I played the slots while waiting for my food.

Would we wind up getting people traveling from one place to another who pass through Chicago blowing their bucks in the Second City? Thereby depriving some other destination place from benefitting from the intended spending?

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Where does Napoleon Harris live?

Napoleon Harris is an Illinois state senator representing a south suburban district consisting of many municipalities that have seen better days economically and socially.

HARRIS: Moving up too far?

Yet he’s also a one-time professional football player and a businessman (he owns a string of Beggars’ Pizza franchises) who has the kind of money that he can afford to live in places that aren’t quite so desolate.

SO WHERE EXACTLY does Harris live?

Officially, he gets identified as “State Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Flossmoor” because of a home he owns in that upscale community. It is a majority African-American population community.

But it is a place where black people with money are able to shelter themselves from some of the realities of urban life that other black people have to deal with on a daily basis.

It would also seem that Harris’ children are enrolled in schools based off that Flossmoor address.

YET THERE HAS been speculation in recent months that the Chicago Tribune picked up on this week that Harris doesn’t really live there.

The catch is that Harris’ primary pizza franchise is based in Harvey, an African-American dominated community that may be as bad as things get. There is speculation that the senator is actually living in a townhouse located right near the strip mall that contains the restaurant AND his legislative district offices.

The Tribune reported that Harris’ driver’s license indicates the Flossmoor address, and that he also received a homestead tax exemption on that property.

But that property is located just outside of his legislative district, whereas the Harvey address is squarely within the district.

NOW I KNOW I have heard stories in recent months about this uncertainty and how Harris was reluctant to give a straight answer. I also know there are politically-motivated people who wanted to try to challenge Harris’ nominating petitions for this year’s election cycle to get him knocked off the ballot on grounds that he doesn’t really live in the district.

 

Back in days when nobody cared where he lived

Not that any of it succeeded.

Those people were never able to come up with the kind of money needed to file the court challenge required to do that. All of the candidates who filed nominating petitions to challenge Harris were so weak that they wound up dropping out of the race before they could be knocked off the ballot for insufficient support.

That is why Harris ran unopposed in the March primary, and doesn’t even have a token Republican challenger for the Nov. 4 general election cycle.

NO MATTER WHAT becomes of all this residential speculation, it would seem that Harris is returning to the Statehouse in Springfield for a four-year term.

The part of this that never made much sense to me was about why Harris would be secretive about a Harvey address. If anything, it would better his image in the lower-income district to claim to live in Harvey, rather than Flossmoor where someone might try to make it stick that he’s somehow out-of-touch with those he claims to represent.

For Harris is a native of Dixmoor; another nearby community with a dominant African-American population. Albeit one who has done well in life – probably better than anyone else he grew up with.

But he can’t afford to appear to be too wealthy, or else he risks getting taken down by the activist types – the kind of people who used to go around claiming that Barack Obama wasn’t “black enough” to be an African-American candidate for president.

I’M SURE A Harvey image fits better into who Harris would like to think he had become. This can be one of the complicating factors for a political person – having to account for where one lives.

For Harris once was a resident of southwest suburban Orland Park, where he has another of his Beggar’s Pizza franchises. He gave up that home many years ago for the Flossmoor address that allowed him a chance at running for office.

For it is very possible that if he had run for the Legislature from that district, the fact that he is a one-time NFL player might not have been sufficient to get the locals to overcome their racial attitudes and vote him into office.

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One more month for the “War of the Women” in Ill. 2nd Congressional

The political fight to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr., in Congress has really turned into a battle of women wishing to move up to the political world of Washington – although in one case it really is a desire for a political comeback.

HUTCHINSON: Big backing?

State Sen. Toi Hutchinson of Olympia Fields? Former state Rep. (and Cook County official) Robin Kelly of Matteson? Or former Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson of Crete?

NOTE THE KEY to their backgrounds is that they’re all suburban-based – which is really what the bulk of this particular congressional district is about. The fact that it was represented by a Chicago resident like Jackson for so long is the real anomaly.

Now I know some people who are following this particular campaign are going to complain that I’m missing the point in reducing the race down to these three candidates.

There will be 17 people to pick from for those people who show up at a polling place for the Feb. 26 Democratic primary special election (with another five people to pick from for those individuals who persist in using a Republican primary ballot).

And yes, there are some men who are worth taking seriously, on a certain level.

YET THE BIG surprise of this particular election cycle is that none of those men have done much to put themselves forward.

Personally, I thought state Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Flossmoor, would have been more of a factor, in part because he has an ego and because he is the professional athlete (he played football with Oakland, Minnesota and Kansas City) with business interests who is capable of self-financing a campaign.

KELLY: She needs a political post

He could easily have forced his face into our political awareness, thereby giving himself name recognition. But he hasn’t. His silence (although some might consider it political good taste) has kept him from being a factor, and it wasn't the world's largest surprise when he dropped out on Wednesday to back Kelly.

Then, there’s 9^th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale – whose campaigning has tried to make much of the fact that he’s the only candidate of significance who comes from Chicago.

AS THOUGH HE wants the Chicago portion of the Illinois Second Congressional district to turn out in such force that it overwhelms the rest of the district – which stretches from the Hyde Park neighborhood south to the Kankakee/Iroquois county line.

Just two problems. One is that the district’s population, at best, is 25 percent Chicago-based. It is true that the just over half of the district that is suburban Cook County based is more likely to be aligned with Chicago than rural Will or Kankakee counties.

But there’s a good chance that Beale – if he survives the ballot challenge now pending before the Illinois State Board of Elections – will be irrelevant outside of Chicago.

There’s also the fact that he gets bashed for his part of Chicago, which consists of the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods; both of which are among the parts of the city that only locals bother to visit.

I KNOW ONE suburban official who openly says any political official from Roseland has no business representing anywhere else – on account of how much that neighborhood has declined.

And as for Mel Reynolds, I seriously doubt that former Congressman gets much more than the 1 percent of the vote that the bulk of the 17 candidates would consider a sign of overwhelming support.

Which is why we’re down to Halvorson, Hutchinson and Kelly – the latter of whom has some significant backing from Obama-type political people (although not the president himself).

HALVORSON: A comeback?

While Hutchinson managed to get the endorsement this week of Kelly’s former boss in Cook County, board President Toni Preckwinkle herself.

HUTCHINSON EVEN MANAGED to name six fellow state senators who support her, although that was likely in response to the fact that one-time congressional candidate Donne Trotter gave his support to Kelly – who is trying to turn this campaign into a single issue (firearms) one, but may find that she makes herself equally as irrelevant outside of her home base as the Beale campaign likely will be.

There also are people who are more than willing to give their support to Halvorson – not so much for the angle that many want to believe (the only white candidate in a 17-person field) because they actually like the idea of a member of Congress who wouldn’t be the ultimate political freshman.

Although a part of me still thinks that her support would have to come from the very people who dumped her from Congress in 2010 – most of whom think they achieved something of significance with her electoral loss and aren’t about to send her back to Congress under any circumstances.

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Illinois’ absentee boys on verge of filling their vacancies in Congress

One of the big stories of 2012 was the fact that two members of our state’s Congressional delegation missed significant amounts of time.

For Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., it was a stroke that took him out of action for a year, while it was a bipolar disorder that caused Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., to have to take a leave of absence that stretched from June until the week in November when he decided to just chuck it all and resign.

WHICH IS WHY I found it intriguing Thursday that both vacancies were on the verge of being filled.

In the case of Kirk, the man himself was able to return to the U.S. Senate. He had the television cameras on hand to record the moment that he walked up the 45 steps of the Capitol – with his congressional colleagues cheering him on.

He even had fellow Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., helping him up the steps, and Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., ready to shake his hand when he got to the top.

Kirk isn’t fully recovered from the stroke he suffered early last year. But he seems ready to go back to work and take on a limited schedule, while representing (along with Durbin) the interests of the people of Illinois when they come before the U.S. Senate.

NOW JACKSON WILL not get anything close to a welcome like that. In fact, I haven’t the slightest clue where he was on Thursday. And I doubt that anybody except the U.S. attorney staffers who are trying to bolster their careers with his criminal prosecution cared what he was doing.

But that vacancy in the House of Representatives took a significant step toward being filled on Thursday when the Illinois State Board of Elections began accepting nominating petitions from people wishing to get on the ballots for the Feb. 26 primary elections.

There are more than two dozen people who have said they’d like the Democratic Party nomination for the Illinois Second Congressional district seat, while a few Republicans and a couple of political independents also have said they may run.

But any clown can put out a statement expressing interest in running for any electoral office they can dream about.

IT IS THE people who go through the process of putting together nominating petitions who ought to be taken seriously.

Petitions will be accepted through Monday night, so there is still room for more people to come forth. In fact, some of the names of people who supposedly have a serious chance of winning have yet to file petitions.

Yet let’s look at the five candidates who were actually at the Elections Board offices when they opened at 8 a.m. – all in hopes of getting their names printed atop the ballot when it is finally compiled.

I know one political observer-type person who seriously believes only those candidates deserve to be taken seriously, because their ability to get their petitions filed so early shows a special dedication to the office.

IF THAT IS the case, then 9^th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale, state Sen.-elect Napoleon Harris, D-Flossmoor, state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields (who on Thursday boasted of the $130,000 she raised for her campaign just in the past month) and former state Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson are the ones who should be at the head of the pack.

Oh yeah, Clifford Eagleton of Harvey also was among the early filers. Although I doubt that even this will gain him any significant attention.

We’ll have to wait until 5 p.m. Monday to see how the ballot shapes up. Although I got my kick out of seeing one of the later filers on Thursday – former Rep. Mel Reynolds, who filed his petitions for a political comeback and indicated that he wants to be identified as Mel “MR” Reynolds.

Does he seriously go about calling himself “MR” (as in his initials)? Or is he going to demand that we all call him “Mr. Reynolds” (instead of all those thoughts we have about him based on his past criminal convictions)?

ONE OF THESE people (or maybe one of the other people such as former state Rep. David Miller of Lynwood or former Rep. Debbie Halvorson of Crete) is going to get to fill the vacancy we have had in our state’s delegation for seven month-and-counting.

Somehow, I doubt any of them will make as much of an impression upon their arrival in Washington as Kirk did on Thursday. Who else will be able to tell us (as Kirk did) that he had a near-death experience so close that he heard angels speaking to him – in Noo Yawk-type accents.

It reminds me of that episode of “The Sopranos” where actor Michael Imperioli’s “Christopher Moltisanti” character told of his brush with Hell (or was it Purgatory?) – where every day is St. Patrick’s Day, and the Irish get to rule over the Italians.

Which makes me wonder what a politician’s version of “Hell” would be – probably a place where the “goo goos” get taken seriously, and public policy is meant to benefit public – rather than political – interests.

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EXTRA: ‘Up and out’ before he was in?

It’s becoming the “mood disorder” heard ‘round the world, with some people already speculating about who could succeed Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill.,  on the off-chance that his ailment forces him to step down from Congress.

Which is likely a long-shot. But anything is possible.

YET I COULDN’T help but notice a Crain’s Chicago Business report this week that went so far as to name potential successors. The business newspaper went so far as to include Napoleon Harris in the mix of people who could someday soon be going to Washington.

For those of you who are now wondering “Who??!?,” Harris is the suburban Flossmoor resident who grew up in Dixmoor, was a football star both at Thornton High School in Harvey and Northwestern University in Evanston, then went on to play a few seasons in the National Football League.

Since then, he has used his money to buy a couple of Beggar’s Pizza franchises in the south suburbs. He also has political aspirations.

Which is why he ran for, and won, the Democratic primary back in March for an Illinois Senate seat being given up by state Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago. He doesn’t have any serious challenger for the general election.

SO COME JANUARY of 2013, Harris will become a state senator from the south suburbs.

Unless, by some chance, he gets his chance to make the “up and out” move before he ever gets to Springfield.

The idea of someone in the state Legislature being called upon to serve in Congress isn’t at all unusual. Many of the representatives and senators now serving in Washington did their time in the state capitols of our nation.

But Harris (who’s actually Napoleon III) could be the first to make the move to the higher level of government before ever actually serving at the Statehouse.

HE COULD GET the benefits of the Illinois Legislature without ever having to endure the nonsense inherent to being a state lawmaker.

Unless, of course, all of this Jackson speculation turns out to be overblown and he remains in office. This is a slow time of the year for Congress, and I don’t think his presence was missed when the House of Representatives persisted Wednesday in taking a blatantly-ideological vote concerning health care reform by the same people who want to believe that “mood disorder” is just a cover-up for a drinking problem.

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EXTRA: No real ‘lecshun surprises

The political status quo was maintained in Chicago. That’s about the best way I can think to describe the results of all those races beyond the Republican presidential primary (which most Chicago voters could have cared less about).

ROEMER: 215 Chicagoans voted for this man

Although for the record, 25,630 Chicago residents voted for Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination. Some 11,510 city residents voted for Rick Santorum. All of which are insignificant compared to the 236,544 votes (with 27 precincts still to be counted) that Obama received for his unchallenged Democratic Party nomination.

HECK, THERE WERE 215 Chicagoans who voted for former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer’s bid – even though he long-ago said he would seek the presidency through a third-party effort instead of using the Republican Party.

But back to the other offices, which for many city residents were the “real” reason for bothering to cast a ballot on Tuesday.

Patrick D. Thompson finished third in his bid for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. But since there are three vacant seats, that means he won. Which means many people can say they helped the next generation Daley family member (he has uncles Rich, Bill and John, along with grandpa Dick) get his first electoral position.

There also are those who are upset that state Rep. Derrick Smith, D-Chicago, could possibly win on Tuesday, considering that he got busted by federal prosecutors for allegedly taking a bribe.

IT’S NOT THAT anybody really wants Smith to remain in office. It just means that when he does eventually have to go, it will be the Democratic Party establishment (the same ones that picked Smith as a fill-in last year when Annazette Collins got a “promotion” to the Illinois state Senate) that picks his replacement.

That is what those West Side voters were saying with their support for Smith.

Speaking of the state Legislature, the Illinois Senate gets an athlete who might be able to give their softball team (which plays an annual game against the Illinois House of Representatives) a jolt.

Napoleon Harris of Flossmoor got the Democratic nomination for the seat being abandoned by retiring state Sen. (and Rev.) James Meeks, D-Chicago. As of now, there is no Republican opponent. We’re talking the same Harris who played professional football with (among others) the Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings. He might not be an athletic “immortal,” but he’s only 33. He’s definitely in better shape physically than 99 percent of the population.

THEN, THERE IS Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., whom it seems will get to return to Washington – despite the people who were desperate to believe that he was scandal-ridden and too tainted by "Rod Blagojevich" and "sex" to be taken seriously.

Debbie Halvorson (who herself served a two-year term in Congress and wanted to return to Washington) was hoping that the extension of that far South Side and surrounding suburb district into Will County would create so many disgruntled voters that she would win the Democratic primary.

For the record, Will County voters in that district went 61 percent for Halvorson, compared to 39 percent for Jackson. Yet that translated only into 2,686 voters. Nearly as many Will County voters (2,181) picked Republican Brian Woodworth to be their nominee – and Jackson’s token opponent come Nov. 6.

There are stray wards in Chicago that could overcome that vote margin. This really was a district whose composition was rigged in Jackson’s favor.

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