Tom Ricketts, Rocky Wirtz and Jerry Reinsdorf all make the case for stadium sports betting to Chicago aldermen

Chicago is on the cusp of allowing in-person betting at professional sports stadiums.

After a contentious meeting last week where aldermen criticized the plan and worried it would hurt a proposed Chicago casino, Mayor Lori Lightfoot got it through the City Council Joint Committee on Licensing and Zoning Monday, having tweaked it to try to gain more support.

The revised ordinance sets an “aspirational” goal for the teams to try to hire minority- and women-owned businesses to work at the venues. It requires teams to report their hiring of companies run by minorities and women as part of their sportsbook business.

And the city released a report, which the Lightfoot administration commissioned and council members have been asking to see, that made the case that sportsbooks haven’t hurt casino revenue in other cities.

Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts, Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz and White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf phoned in to testify in favor of the plan Monday, detailing their investments in Chicago communities and arguing the sportsbooks at Wrigley Field, the United Center and Guaranteed Rate Field will help them put people to work.

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Ricketts said his team’s planned sportsbook is more of a sports bar and restaurant than a gambling house that will pull patrons and money from a casino. “This is not a casino, or even a mini-casino,” Ricketts said.

In 2019, after the Illinois Legislature approved stadium sportsbooks, Lightfoot said they had “the potential to undermine the viability of any Chicago-based casino.”

But the mayor has since pivoted to support the idea. On Monday, she said a lot of the people complaining now “didn’t raise a single word of criticism” back when Springfield passed it.

Aldermen voiced some of the same concerns about the plan Monday as at earlier meetings on the issue. Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, said it’s offensive that millionaires are fighting over splitting up gambling proceeds while the city refuses to legalize video gambling in struggling local bars.

Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, worried the city hasn’t done enough work to figure out whether the sports gambling facilities would in fact devalue the planned Chicago casino, and wondered why there’s such a rush to adopt the plan. “I would like more time to vet this thing out,” Reilly said.

And Far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, said the professional teams are certainly charitable in Chicago neighborhoods, but that doesn’t change the fact the planned casino will see its receipts and the tax money it sends to the city drop if it’s competing with stadium books.

At last week’s meeting, the joint committee did not vote on the plan, with aldermen wondering aloud why they should allow sportsbooks with a tax structure that administration officials said would bring in just $400,000 to $500,000 per year to the city.

Lightfoot added the 2% tax on the sports betting to try to address criticism that the stadium venues would eat into the taxes from the planned casino. That money is earmarked to help fund Chicago’s public pensions.

Several aldermen noted then that the sportsbook taxes would pale in comparison to the many millions of dollars in taxes casino backers have said would be lost if the team owners are allowed to “cannibalize” the casino with their own establishments.

The ordinance would allow sports gambling facilities within Wrigley Field, Guaranteed Rate Field, Soldier Field, the United Center and Wintrust Arena, or at sites within five blocks of those stadiums. Two off-track betting businesses licensed in Illinois could also opt to set up sportsbooks in Chicago. And one would be allowed in the casino, when it’s built.

Tribune’s Gregory Pratt contributed.

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com