We are deeply disappointed in a Cook County judge’s decision to dismiss a case aimed at rectifying the state government’s failure to reimburse Illinois purse accounts, as required by law, after tracks deplete those accounts to subsidize their own operations. Under Illinois statute, the General Assembly “shall appropriate sufficient funds” to replenish the purse accounts after tracks take dollars under the practice known as recapture. But in the absence of an appropriation—it has been 17 years since lawmakers approved one—the judge decided last week that he cannot force the state to act.

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