little blog on the prairie

The Champaign OTB, the off-track betting facility that serves Champaign-Urbana’s horseracing aficionados and random gamblers, recently moved out of its Springfield Ave. location and crossed borders into Urbana. In a sweet deal with the Brickhouse (formerly TK Wendl’s), the OTB is now filling the tax coffers of the smaller of the twin cities.

I find it fascinating that there is seemingly little public reaction to the presence of the OTB in Urbana. That contrasts mightily to an ongoing fight in the Chicago northern suburb of Niles, where an OTB hopes to take up residence in an abandoned Circuit City store. Among its many hurdles has been opposition from local residents, who believe the OTB would attract crime and told the Chicago Tribune that it would “reverse decades of change in the suburb, which in the 1950s and early 1960s was known as an illegal gambling haven.” J.C. Penney, which is in the same mall, has also threatened legal action because it feels the operation is not consistent with its family-friendly image.

Wonder if the about-to-open Urbana Wal-Mart, a Brickhouse neighbor, feels the same way.