Edwardsville Voters Face Video Gambling Referendum On March 2026 Ballots

Edwardsville City Council Meeting

EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville voters will have a chance next spring to make their stance on video gambling known to city leaders.

Edwardsville City Council members on Tuesday approved adding a non-binding referendum on the March 17, 2026 General Primary Election Ballot regarding video gambling in Edwardsville. The exact wording was amended after a lengthy discussion between council members and will appear on the ballot as follows:

“Shall the city of Edwardsville allow video gambling, subject to regulations, in existing establishments with on-premises consumption of alcohol/liquor?”

Alderwoman Elizabeth Grant said this renewed push for a ballot referendum is based on “urgent” requests from small business owners for Edwardsville to allow video gambling in more establishments. Edwardsville is currently the only city in the Riverbend which only allows video gambling in lodges and fraternal organizations, but not bars, restaurants, and other businesses.

“The reason this is being put on the ballot is the urgent requests that we’ve had from our small business owners to see if the climate has changed,” Grant said.

Ryan High, owner of Global Brew and Brick + Bramble, voiced his support for the new referendum during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting.

King Comfort Club Memberships

Shop Local

King Air Conditioning & Heating

Get This Deal →

“I'm standing here today on behalf of all of our bar and restaurant owners ... we support it. All it is is an extra revenue stream,” High said of video gambling. “I assure you that those of us that get that revenue, we put it right back into our business and right back into the community.”

High said his Global Brew location in O’Fallon is preparing to add video gambling, a lengthy process which has taken 265 days since he first applied. He said O’Fallon’s restrictive approach to video gambling could serve as a model for Edwardsville, noting that despite being heavily regulated, video gambling has generated $330,000 in additional revenue for O’Fallon over the past year.

The Edwardsville City Council’s overall desire to ensure video gambling is properly regulated within the city lead to a lengthy discussion over how exactly the referendum should be worded to avoid confusing voters.

Originally, the referendum simply stated, “Shall the city of Edwardsville allow video gambling?” After feedback from local business owners at the last Administrative and Community Services (ACS) Committee meeting, Grant said the wording was changed to: “Shall the city of Edwardsville allow restricted video gambling in existing establishments with on-premises consumption of alcohol/liquor?”

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Alderman Chris Farrar raised concerns about the word “restricted” being potentially confusing for voters. Farrar said the average voter may falsely interpret the wording to mean the city would allow some type of “restricted” activity. Grant said the word “restricted” was added with the intention of informing voters that video gambling is not “going to be everywhere.”

Farrar later pointed out that the ways in which video gambling is “restricted” in Edwardsville depend entirely on city leadership – including not just the current City Council, but the city’s future aldermen, who may eventually allow video gambling to be “everywhere.” Alderman SJ Morrison said that while he personally does not support an expansion of video gambling operations within the city, he will ultimately support the will of the voters.

Alderman Adam Hanna said voters already rejected a similar ballot referendum in 2021, and based on what he has heard from his constituents, he doesn’t feel the public’s opinion on video gambling has changed since. Mayor Art Risavy disagreed, stating that while voters may have felt that way in 2021, it would be worth seeing whether voter’s feelings on the matter have changed or not after five years.

After some further discussion and debate, City Council members ultimately voted 5-1 to add the non-binding referendum to the March 17, 2026 General Primary Election Ballot with the amended language. Hanna cast the sole vote against adding the referendum, while Alderman William Krause was absent from the meeting.

A full recording of the Dec. 2, 2025 Edwardsville City Council meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.

More like this:

Edwardsville Voters Strongly Reject Video Gambling Ballot Referendum

Mar 17, 2026

Macoupin County Voters Face Illinois Separation Ballot Question

Jun 17, 2026

Madison County 2026 Primaries See Few Contests, Various Referendums

Feb 7, 2026

Edwardsville Purchase Of Goshen Commons Storage Shed Fails To Pass

Jun 20, 2026

Andreas Nominated For Madison County Clerk, Other 2026 Primary Results

Mar 17, 2026