Riverboat casinos lose court appeal in battle against racetracks, ex-gov Blagojevich

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Riverboat casinos battling the racetrack industry lost an appeal Friday when the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a law signed by convicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which siphoned money from casinos to support racetracks.

The law, dubbed the Racetrack Bill and referenced repeatedly in Blagojevich's trials, was passed by a majority of the state legislature in 2006 and 2008 and signed by Blagojevich both times. It aimed to correct a blow dealt by riverboat casinos perceived to be luring away gambling dollars, giving racetracks proceeds from a 3 percent tax on riverboats to reverse the damage.

There's more:

The Appellate Court noted in its 5-3 majority opinion that the tax was "possibly of corrupt origin," but did not rule on that aspect of the casinos' case and wrote it wasn't relevant to whether or not the tax was legal.

Got that!