Fortunately as a Marquee Card holder, at Hollywood, I haven't experienced the worst of all this but yes, several weeks to a couple months ago casinos in Illinois made some very unfortunate changes. The changes are in response to Gov. Blagojavich's signing of the new budget that raised taxes on casino revenue from, I think it was 50% to now, around or over, 70%. Also the new law requires the casinos to charge a $5 entry fee for every guest that enters the facility. As the mail that I received from Hollywood, in Aurora, put it, it doesn't matter if someone is just coiming in to see a show or to have dinner and doesn't plan to gamble. They still have to pay $5 to get in.

Shortly after the announcement in late June of the activation of all the new charges I got a mail from Hollywood, Mid July, that gave me a little sticker to put on my Marquee card. The S on the sticker indicates Self Park and gives me Free Self Parking. A charge that didn't exist before but now costs non-card holders a couple bucks or so. If the sticker was a V then it would be free Valet parking. I used to get FREE valet parking but now have to pay $3.

In addition to the parking situation my sticker now entitles me to 2 FREE admisssions and FREE bottled water and non-alcoholic drinks. Otherwise they charge for those items. I think Illinois Law forbids giving away alcohol for free.

In addition to new charges they have closed Fairbanks, the steak house there, a day or two a week. Completely closed the High Roller Lounge, Now totally gone from what I recall. The buffet only serves Lunch and Dinner, no more breakfast. The casino now closes at 4am and slot machines are turned off at 3:30 from what I understand. They now reopen at around 10am. I guess they cut out an entire shift of workers with that one. The worst charge from what I understand is the charge of fifty some dollars for sitting at a poker table. Fortunately I don't play live poker.

Also, I used to get frequent letters, every other month, that used to have coupons attached. I used to have a $30 voucher for each month. Now, I only get one $7 voucher with each letter that I receive. I think the last one I got was in August.

So, if you are not a card holder you can now expect to pay $2 for self parking and $5 for Valet. Then you have to pay $5 to get in. Then there is the charges for drinks and if you play poker, then $50 to play poker.

A basic visit for a person and a guest, (me and my girlfriend for example) without a card could cost as much as $15 before you put the first coin in a slot machine. Add a drink when you get there and you could be looking at as much as $25 right from the start. Play poker? $75 down before your first hand.

Definately if you plan to go to casinos in Illinois sign up for the slot clubs. They are trying hard to make up for this. The slot club cards are now a necessity. With the Marquee card, on my last trip last week, I paid, $3 for the Valet Parking and $2 for a tip to the Valet. I got my entry for me and my girlfriend for FREE and would have had NON-ALCOHOL drinks and water for free also. In this situation it wasn't as bad of a deal.

I think it was here on The Chipboard, a month or so ago, Travis posted an article that showed what might be the trend for gaming in Illinois. http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tcbarc09/tcbarc09.pl?read=276901. It told of how Illinois casinos are loosing market share to the boats in Indiana.