Racing Board OKs OTB for Orland Hills

The Illinois Racing Board has approved an off-track betting parlor for Orland Hills.

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

Playing the ponies will get easier for Southland bettors now that the Illinois Racing Board has approved a license for Arlington Park to open a betting parlor in Orland Hills.

The racing board on Tuesday approved the request for a Trackside OTB at 9201 W. 159th St. in Orland Hills. The board also approved LaRocco Bros. to operate the restaurant side of the business.

Orland Hills officials have been talking about getting an OTB within the village for more than a decade.

“The village certainly appreciates the chance to get this new business,” said Village Administrator John Daly.

“It hopefully will replace some of the lost revenues of the down economy and the bankruptcy of Chrysler and Circuit City,” Daly said.

In the past couple of years, Orland Hills saw a Mancari Chrysler dealership and a Circuit City appliance store (both just a few blocks away from the new OTB) go out of business. Both generated considerable income tax revenue for Orland Hills.

“We replaced Circuit City with a Sports Authority but it’s a sporting goods store and doesn’t sell big ticket items,” Daly said.

The Mancari site is the largest vacancy in the village, Daly said.

Daly said the process now is for Sam LaRocco, who operates a Fat Sam’s with an OTB in Lockport, to apply for the necessary permits and licenses.

“We need to see his plan for the build out and things like that,” Daly said.

Because LaRocco is remodeling an existing building, work should go quickly, Daly said. He said the OTB could be up and running by next summer.

“We plan to keep it similar to Lockport,” LaRocco said. “We’ll have a few more TVs for the horses.”

The Orland Hills location would be slightly smaller than the Lockport Fat Sam’s, he said.

As for the Orland Park Fat Sam’s, which is only a few blocks west of the 159th Street site?

“The Orland Park Fat Sam’s isn’t going anywhere,” LaRocco said. “The new place will have a kitchen and draw an older crowd than Fat Sam’s with its dancing and beer garden.”

LaRocco said he’s thinking of calling the new venture Triple Crown, a horseracing term that refers to the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

The closest OTB to Orland Hills is one operated by Inter-Track Partners – owned by the Hawthorne, Maywood and Balmoral horse tracks – in Mokena. Inter-Track also operates an OTB in Crestwood.

An OTB in Tinley Park left town a couple of years ago when Bud’s sports bar pulled up stakes and relocated to a western suburb.