East Dundee trustees direct staff to draft tighter rules for gaming cafes, including 2,500‑foot spacing

The Village of East Dundee Board directed staff on April 6 to draft revisions to the village code aimed at limiting the spread of gaming cafes and protecting restaurants and bars that also host video‑gaming terminals.

Staff said visits to four existing gaming cafes found widely varying food-service levels — in one case a single bag of chips was offered — and recommended higher food-service standards and geographic limits. “State law requires that gaming cafes have food available,” staff said, noting that in practice the quantity and type of food differed dramatically across sites. Staff recommended excluding gaming cafes from the historic downtown and making them a special use elsewhere, with clearer standards for food service.

Trustees debated several tools to slow growth and preserve downtown restaurant revenue: requiring a full commercial kitchen or a formal partnership with a local restaurant to provide on‑site or coordinated food service; adding a distance requirement to keep gaming cafes away from one another and from establishments that already host terminals; and capping the total number of gaming‑cafe licenses.

Board members discussed a range of spacing and cap options. Several trustees favored a 2,500‑foot buffer — roughly a half mile — between a gaming cafe and another cafe or any establishment with gaming terminals, to avoid multiple gaming venues clustering in close proximity. One trustee called for a cap of four such cafes as a backstop; others said a distance rule would be easier to administer and less vulnerable to litigation.

Trustees also considered an objective revenue test (for example, a threshold percentage of gross revenue from video gaming) to distinguish a bona fide restaurant or bar from a venue that exists primarily to host machines. Staff was asked to research statutory and local precedents, county/state spacing rules, and revenue‑percentage thresholds used elsewhere.

The board gave staff direction to draft an ordinance that would: require a higher level of bona fide food provision (either a commercial kitchen or a documented partnership with a local restaurant), include a 2,500‑foot distancing requirement, and examine a licensing cap (the packet noted a proposed cap of four). Trustees asked staff to confirm how many potential additional locations the 2,500‑foot rule would exclude and to return the draft for further review and placement on a future agenda.

The board did not take a final vote on the zoning language on April 6. Staff said the revisions would be returned to the board after legal review and additional research into state requirements and alternative regulatory tools.