Joliet caps gas station gambling licenses

Joliet has put a lid on a gambling and liquor license that has been controversial and confusing since its inception.

The City Council last week approved a cap on the number of BG licenses, which allow gas stations to sell and pour liquor while also operating video gambling machines.

The license has been controversial since it was created in 2021 because some object to the idea of gas stations selling open liquor, although gas station operators who get the license don’t pour the liquor but use the license to sell packaged liquor and run video gambling machines. Meanwhile, gas station operators who can’t get the license object to being put at a competitive disadvantage.

The license is confusing because it only applies to a fraction of the city’s gas stations allowed to sell liquor and run gambling machines. The state of Illinois provides a similar license allowing liquor and gambling to stations that reach a certain volume of fuel sales, typically those that serve diesel trucks.

The City Council on Tuesday capped the number of BG licenses at three, which is the number of businesses that hold the license. All three are BP stations. They are at 1987 W. Jefferson St., 1415 Plainfield Road and 4802 Caton Farm Road.

Adding to the confusion is that the city has a separate license that allows liquor and gaming at gas stations that was not capped and is held by two gas stations. Those stations are a Thorntons at the corner of Collins and Jackson streets and a Mobil at the corner of Broadway and Theodore streets.

Deputy City Attorney Chris Regis last week told the council that it is within its rights to cap the number of BG licenses at three.

“Putting a cap on types of licenses is a very common regulatory scheme in many towns,” Regis said. “This is not unique at all. This is the norm.”

Joliet lifted a ban on liquor sales at gas stations that had been in place since 1989 to accommodate an arrangement in which Thorntons would finance the relocation of the 19th-century Cassaday House at Collins and Jackson streets before it built a gas station on the site.

Thorntons sells packaged liquor at the station but has not installed gambling machines, although the company requested the right to have gambling included in the deal to save the Cassaday house..