City Can Revoke Gaming Machine Owner’s License for Skipping Tax

A video gaming terminal operator failed to convince an Illinois appeals court to bar a city from revoking the company’s gaming license for not remitting a “push tax,” after the court determined the ordinance implementing the tax wasn’t preempted by state law or unconstitutionally vague.

Hyperactive Gaming LLC argued the city of Waukegan’s one-cent push tax—which is imposed on each instance a gaming machine’s simulation is activated—was unlawful because the tax was preempted by section 90 of the Illinois Video Gaming Act. In Illinois Gaming Machine Operators Association v. Village of Oak Lawn, a state trial court held that the Video Gaming Act prohibits such push taxes on ...