Court Opinion

ID: 9738460
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:53:41.161699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:06.114322
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE ROMITI, specially concurring: I concur in this decision but only to the extent that it indicates the need for an authoritative determination of the public policy of this State concerning gambling. The power of the legislature to regulate and even prohibit gambling activities has long been recognized in Illinois. (Booth v. People (1900), 186 Ill. 43, 57 N.E. 798, aff’d (1902), 184 U.S. 425,46 L. Ed. 623,22 S. Ct. 425; People v. Monroe (1932), 349 Ill. 270, 182 N.E. 439.) These restrictions have been based on the police power of the State, out of which the legislature derives broad discretion in regulating matters related to the public welfare. But this discretion is not unbounded; it must be exercised reasonably. Rios v. Jones (1976), 63 Ill. 2d 488, 348 N.E.2d 825, appeal dismissed (1976), 429 U.S. 934, 50 L. Ed. 2d 304, 97 S. Ct. 346; Sherman-Reynolds, Inc. v. Mahin (1970), 47 Ill. 2d 323, 265 N.E.2d 640. Whether such statutes, enacted pursuant to the police power, are in fact substantially related to the public welfare and whether the means utilized are reasonable are both questions properly reviewable by the courts. Brennan v. Illinois Racing Board (1969), 42 Ill. 352, 247 N.E.2d 881. In People v. Monroe our supreme court held that betting on horse races was not malum in se, but only malum prohibitum. At issue there was the constitutionality of legislation permitting betting on horse races. But that case makes clear that there is nothing immutable about the public policy against gambling. As the court there stated: “The public policy of a State, when not fixed by the constitution, is not unalterable but varies upon any given question with changing legislation thereon* * *.” (349 Ill. 270, 276, 182 N.E. 439, 442.) For some time Illinois has permitted betting on horse races, though limiting the manner in which this could be done. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 8, par. 37a et seq.) More recently, by legislation creating a State lottery, this State has become actively involved in fostering a gambling activity throughout the State. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 120, par. 1151 et seq.) We also take judicial notice that a Governor’s commission has recommended that offtrack betting be legalized in this State and administered by regional offices in Chicago and other “core” cities throughout the State; and of recent news media reports suggesting the imminence of such legislation. At issue, then, is whether the legislature may reasonably prohibit a private commercial form of an activity by declaring it to be contrary to public policy or harmful to the general welfare while by other legislation it actively promotes that activity. If it may not, under the standards of review utilized in Illinois for determining the propriety of restrictions on business activity, as set out in the opinion of the court, it seems clear that the prohibition at issue is unreasonable.1 Thus it becomes crucial to decide whether gambling, and horse racing in particular, when viewed against this backdrop of recent and proposed legislation is no longer contrary to the public policy of Illinois, and therefore has become subject to the protections afforded other commercial enterprises. Because I believe the decision of this court will aid in establishing with finality the public policy in this area, I concur in that decision.   Such a determination, of course, would not interfere with the State’s authority to reasonably regulate and monitor such activities so as to prevent abuses.