Residents looking to hit the jackpot on video gaming machines in Westmont will gave to go elsewhere to gamble, after the village has decided to ban the machines in the community.

Citing low feedback from residents and businesses, and a lack of answers in the state law, the Westmont Village Board voted Monday, Oct. 19, to opt out of the new state law to bring in legalized video gaming terminals into the village.

The move means the video machines will not be coming to the village, but officials said they can go back later and review the issue. It also means they will not be getting the additional revenue that gaming would bring into the village.

After a discussion on the issue last week, the Village Board decided to move forward with the vote after getting very few responses in surveys of residents and businesses, and unanswered questions in the state law.

Village Trustee Lee Fleming, who said he attended a meeting of the Illinois Municipal League when the state ordinance was discussed, said there are too many unanswered questions in the state’s ordinance, and that portions of the law are vary vague.

“There are only about 75 employees in the state gaming commission. How will they regulate this law?” he said. “They also have not indicated how much businesses would have to pay for a gaming license. We don’t have a lot to go on with this ordinance right now. How can we make a reasonable decision to move forward with these every vague guidelines?”

The village held two different polls on the issue in the community, one with residents on the village’s Web site, and one conducted by Police Chief Tom Mulhearn of 40 liquor license establishments that would be eligible to have the machines.

In both cases, the village had very few responses, officials said.

“Of the 40 surveys that I sent out to liquor license establishments, only 15 were returned, which was disappointing,” Mulhearn said. “Of those, eight businesses said they would support it, so it is a small majority. There is no clear consensus on this issue.”

The Internet poll had just more than 100 responses, with about 51 percent of the people in support of gaming, Village Manager Ron Seal said.

Trustee Bob Scott said one of the issues is that no community in the county wants to be the first to allow the gambling machines.

Officials also blamed the state, and compared it to the original smoking ban, which allowed communities to make their own laws regarding whether to allow smoking or not, Fleming said.

Trustee Mark Forzley indicated that it is question of the image of the community in the public if the village were to allow gambling.

“We just decided to ban 6 a.m. liquor sales, how can we go and contradict ourselves by allowing gambling?” he said.

Village attorney John Zemenak said, even though the village has chosen to opt out at this time, they could still go back later and institute gaming, if the board chooses to do so.