Local businesses are seeing an increase in revenue thanks to the approval last year of video gambling.
Mark Lerofe, the general manager of Glenwood Oaks restaurant, 106 N. Main St. in Glenwood, said the presence of video poker machines have brought “a new dimension” to the business — which last year was one of the first in the south suburbs to install the gambling machines.
He admits the people who come to gamble have little interest in eating a meal, or even in having a drink at the bar.
“They’re coming to gamble. They get on a machine, and they stay for hours,” he said.
But that is not a negative, since Lerofe said they do not bother other customers and they add to the ambiance of the facility with its five gambling machines.
“The noises and the lights, it’s almost like Las Vegas,” said Lerofe, who estimated that maybe 50 people per week are passing through Glenwood Oaks to use the gambling machines. “It’s bringing in new people who might not have been part of our clientele before.”…Please click here to read Kurt Erickson Lee’s story in the Times.