Mount Prospect to allow signs advertising video gambling

Mount Prospect will allow bars and restaurants to put up signs advertising video gambling in their windows, under a measure backed by a majority of village trustees this week.

Establishments will be allowed a single window sign of up to four square feet. The sign can be illuminated, but cannot flash or have chasing lights.

Mark Rysavy, the village's deputy director of building and inspection services, said a survey of neighboring communities, including Prospect Heights, Wheeling, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates and Elk Grove Village, found Schaumburg's regulations the most compatible. Schaumburg also allows a single four-square-foot sign.

"We are fairly conservative with our sign code. We do limit temporary signage pretty tightly here. That's why it looks so clean, so organized here in Mount Prospect," Rysavy said.

Businesses with video gambling have been asking village leaders for permission to advertise with signs.

"It's been remarkable for my business. The signage can only help promote what we're offering in a good way," said Spiro Kondos, owner of Draft Picks sports bar.

Trustee Paul Hoefert said allowing the window sign seems reasonable. He also said he would be open to a tasteful marquee sign.

"If we start off with the four-square-foot sign, I think it's OK," Trustee Eleni Hatzis added. "How else would anybody know?"

Trustees Colleen Saccotelli and Richard Rogers voted against any signs.

"I would be very uncomfortable with it being out on the marquee sign or a free-standing sign," Rogers said. "Because there's almost no control. What happens is one's person's going to get a small sign, and the next person's going to make it a little bigger. And before you know it, we're going to look like Las Vegas."

Saccotelli said one of the reasons she voted in 2018 to allow video gambling in Mount Prospect was because that measure included a ban on signs.