CHICAGO, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Members of the Illinois Municipal League (IML) will be told Saturday that "video gaming has been a significant and stable source of revenue in South Dakota for almost 20 years without creating the negative social impact that many detractors predicted."

Larry A. Mann, a former commissioner of Lead City, S.D., and a public affairs consultant to the mining and gaming industries, will speak before the 96th conference of the IML, an organization of all the municipalities in Illinois.

The presentation comes at a time when many Illinois cities and unincorporated counties are debating whether to participate in the Video Gaming Act, which allows certain licensed liquor pouring establishments to operate as many as five video gaming devices, provided these machines are located in areas accessible only to adults.

A quarter of the revenues from these machines will help the state fund the $31-billion capital bill; another 5 percent goes to the local municipality where the machines are located. The act does offer municipalities an opt-out provision.

Mann cited a 1998 study of South Dakota gaming by Deloitte & Touche, which shows that the positive impact of video gaming on annual revenue outweighs the potential negative social costs.

"In South Dakota, video gaming is second only to sales tax as a source of revenue," says Mann. "It has reduced property taxes significantly."

He also pointed out that the number of video gaming opponents is declining in South Dakota.

"In 2000, a referendum to repeal gaming was defeated by 53 percent of the voters. In 2006, 64 percent defeated a similar referendum," he said.

Mann was invited to the IML conference by the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association.

"One of the myths perpetuated about video gaming is that it hasn't worked in other states. Mann's presentation refutes that assertion," says ICMOA President Tom Fiedler of Champaign.

Headquartered in Morris, the ICMOA is a 120-member, non-profit organization formed by businesses involved in the coin-operated amusement machine industry in Illinois. For more information, visit http://gaming.icmoa.org/.

    Contact: Judi Schindler             jschindler@hodgeschindler.com             312.666.6662

SOURCE Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association