The Village of South Jacksonville is looking at amending it’s gaming license ordinance.
Currently, the village has two open gaming and liquor licenses for taverns and the village has no taverns, with ET’s Zodiac closing more than 3 years ago.
The Village Board of Trustees wants to do away with the tavern license designation completely and move one empty license for a new space in Colony South located in the 1400 block of South Main Street, owned by The Freiburg Family out of Quincy.
The new location will be known as The Lucky Clover. Village President Dick Samples says he doesn’t see any problems adding another gaming location in the village: “We’ve had none whatsoever. Like Police Chief Eric Hansell discussed during our meeting, there is no police problems with them. There is no issues within the village. There is no problems with people coming in and saying, ‘We don’t want another gambling facility.’ Nobody has said anything. It was advertised in the newspaper, and nobody has come forward saying they don’t want another gambling facility here in South Jacksonville.”
According to numbers presented by Maxamillions President Tanner Freiburg at the village’s committee of the whole meeting on Thursday night, the current Max-A-Millions location in Colony South generates approximately one-quarter of the village’s over-$15,000 in monthly tax revenue from their gambling machines. Freiburg predicted that the second location across the plaza may bring in similar numbers.
The village board of trustees are expected to vote on the change to the gaming and liquor license ordinance at their November business meeting.