BP on Plainfield Road gets Joliet gambling license

A third Joliet gas station this week got a gambling license from the city after a divided vote from the City Council.

The council voted 5-3 on Tuesday to approve the license for the BP station at 1415 Plainfield Road.

The divided vote showed the continued reluctance by the council to authorize liquor and gambling at gas stations since being compelled to do so by a state ruling last year. While The BP station is the third given a city license, larger stations in Joliet have state-issued licenses allowing video gambling based on size and volume of fuel sales.

“I understand that there are people who have an opposition to this out of principle,” Michael Mikuska, whose family opened the Plainfield Road station 58 years ago, told the council. “At the same time, the horse is out of the barn.”

City officials had not intended to let the horse get out.

The first city license allowing video gambling and liquor at a gas station was issued in January 2020 to the new Thorntons at Jackson and Collins streets in what was supposed to be a one-time deal in exchange for the company’s $300,000 contribution to move the 19th Century Casseday house off the site to a location where it could be preserved.

The Thorntons deal prompted Terry Lambert, owner of a Mobil station at Broadway and Theodore streets, to seek the same arrangement. When the city turned him down, Lambert appealed to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and won.

The city in May created the new BG license for liquor and gambling at gas stations and gave one to Lambert. But the council turned down an application for the BG license from the Phillips 66 station at Chicago and McDonough streets.

Mikuska reminded the council of his long standing as a small business owner as he made his case for the license.

“We’re very committed to the community,” he said. “That location’s been there for 58 years. We’ve provided over 400 jobs.”

In the 1980s, Mikuska’s station was grandfathered in and allowed to continue selling liquor when Joliet decided not to prohibit liquor sales at any more gas stations. The city kept the no-liquor rule even as gas stations in surrounding communities allowed beer and wine sales.

But the Lambert case also broke that rule, and Joliet now also has a license for packaged liquor sales at gas stations.

Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, also the city’s liquor commissioner, opposed the license for Thorntons and has recommended denial of every gas station request for a liquor or gambling license since. The council overrode O’Dekirk’s denial to award the license to the BP on Plainfield Road.

Voting for the gambling license were Jan Quillman, Bettye Gavin, Cesar Guerrero, Joe Clement and Terry Morris. Voting no were Pat Mudron, Sherri Reardon and Larry Hug.

Thorntons and Lambert’s Mobil station both sell packaged liquor but have not yet installed video gambling machines. Mikuska said he intends to install the machines.