Council Votes Monday on a Liquor License. The Applicant's Website Advertises a Gaming Lounge.

The Marengo City Council will consider a liquor license on Monday, October 12, for a new restaurant at 304 S. State Street. The applicant's website advertises a video gaming lounge. The city's memo on the request says the council is not supportive of more video gaming. The motion before the council does not mention gaming, and under the city's code, a liquor license is the city's gate for video gaming.

What Is on the Agenda

Item 5b asks the council to approve a Class B liquor license for Jay Amisha Marengo, Inc., doing business as Amy's Indian Bistro, and to pass an ordinance raising the number of Class B licenses the city allows from seven to eight. The two go together: the code caps Class B licenses at seven, so a new one needs the cap raised.

A Class B is the city's "Table Service" license. It allows alcohol to be served on the premises "as an incidental part of food service," and food must account for more than 51% of the business's sales. The annual fee is $1,500. The restaurant's menu, included in the council packet, lists Indian and Indo-Chinese dishes.

What the City Has Said

City Administrator Derik Morefield's memo to the council says the petitioner has completed a background check. It then says: "The petitioner has been advised that the City Council is not supportive of the establishment of additional video gaming machines. City is not aware whether or not video gaming is planned at any point in the future at this location."

What the Applicant's Website Says

The restaurant's website, amysindianbistro.com, lists three locations: Joliet, New Lenox, and Marengo. All three show "Hours TBD" and a placeholder phone number, "(xxx) xxx-xxxx." The email address the site lists is on a domain that does not exist. Gaming runs through the whole site. "Gaming Lounge" is one of its navigation links, "Premium Slots" scrolls across its banner, and the footer reads "Indian & Indo Chinese Cuisine · Video Gaming." A section titled Gaming & Entertainment describes "state-of-the-art video gaming terminals and slots" and invites guests to "play a few rounds between courses."

The site says the lounge is "available at select locations." It does not say which. The Illinois Gaming Board's published lists, as of October 8, show no video gaming application at 304 S. State Street.

How Gaming Follows a Liquor License

In Marengo, video gaming does not come with its own city license. The city's liquor code permits video gaming terminals "in and upon the premises used or occupied as a place where alcoholic liquor is sold or given away," as long as the business follows the state Video Gaming Act and the state Gaming Board's rules, files with the city clerk its use agreement with the terminal operator and a copy of its state gaming license, and pays the city $250 a year per machine. The machines may be played only during the hours the business may serve alcohol, and a gaming violation counts as a violation of the liquor license. The section sets no limit on the number of gaming locations and does not call for a separate council vote on gaming. The state decides who gets a gaming license.

That section makes no exception for Class B. The code does carve out one license class. The Class E license, for businesses that host art and craft classes and shows, says Class E licenses "shall not be allowed to apply or receive video gaming endorsement," and labels the class "(No Gaming)." The code currently allows zero Class E licenses. No such line appears in Class B.

At the other end of the scale, the state Video Gaming Act says a municipality "may pass an ordinance prohibiting video gaming within the corporate limits." Marengo has no such ordinance.

At a July 28, 2025 discussion of requests for new gaming locations, the minutes record that "the council agreed to have all requests for gaming go through the city council." That agreement is not written into the code, and the gaming section does not require council approval before a business with a liquor license applies to the state.

What the Council Can Do Monday

The council has the ordinary choices on any agenda item. It can approve the license and the ordinance raising the Class B count. It can vote them down. Or it can table them to a later meeting. Nothing in the code obliges the council to create an eighth Class B license.

The code also gives the city a general power to put terms on a license: "Any and all licenses shall be subject to any restrictions or conditions deemed desirable by the Liquor Commission or the Commissioner." The motion on Monday's agenda includes no condition. Whether that language could support a no-gaming condition on a single Class B license, when the gaming section permits terminals wherever liquor is sold, is a question the code does not answer on its face. A rule for Class B as a whole, like the one written for Class E, would take a code amendment, and it would apply to every Class B license, not only a new one.

The Bigger Picture

Video gaming is already a significant business in Marengo. Last year the state recorded 79 terminals at fourteen licensed locations in the city. Players lost $3.48 million on them, and the city's share was $176,555.

Marengo Weekly will publish a fuller look at video gaming in Marengo, what the machines take in and what the city keeps, in the coming weeks.

The council meets at 7:00 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 132 E. Prairie Street. Residents may comment on any agenda item when the council takes it up.

Marengo Weekly reviewed the agenda and packet for the October 12, 2026 City Council meeting, including the agenda supplement, liquor license application and proposed ordinance for item 5b; Chapter 115 of the Marengo Municipal Code, sections 115.05, 115.07 and 115.52 (formerly Chapter 33, sections 33.05, 33.07 and 33.38), as published online on October 8, 2026; council minutes from July 28, 2025; Illinois Gaming Board video gaming reports for 2025 and its licensed, pending and denied applicant lists as published on October 8, 2026; sections 5 and 27 of the Illinois Video Gaming Act, 230 ILCS 40; and the website amysindianbistro.com as it appeared on October 8, 2026.