Lake County, in the state of Illinois, has voted to ban video poker. The vote took place on Tuesday October 13, and the result was 18-4 in favor of banning video poker in unincorporated areas of the county. The 18-4 vote led the county to opt out of the state of Illinois’ gambling initiative that was supposed to help fund the state’s capital bill through video game machines in taverns and other establishments.

Since the vote was in favor of not joining the state’s initiative, the county is set to lose $900,000 each year from the gambling program and possibly consideration for future road projects. The vote against the state’s gambling initiative will also hurt local establishments who will lose patrons to adjoining counties that allow video poker and to the state of Wisconsin, which allows video poker in Milwaukee.

Many board members who voted on the decision have yet to hear support about video gaming machines except from tavern owners and were not willing to take the risk of helping tavern owners make money at the expense of increased crime. The board members were fearful, at least the 18 who voted against the initiative, that crime in the county would increase with the approval of video gaming machines because the machines can be fixed to win or lose as many times as the tavern owner would like.

The establishments eligible for the video gaming machines included at least 85 businesses. Of those 85 businesses, 54 were bars, 21 were restaurants, several of them were gold courses and two were fraternal organizations within the county.