The Rock Falls City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday that increases the annual liquor license fee for bar owners with gaming machines as their primary revenue source.

Most significantly, there is a separate license for bars that derive more than half their revenue from gaming machines. Under the ordinance, those bars will be paying a higher annual fee than bars that don’t derive more than half of their revenue from the machines.

The new ordinance also creates an additional annual fee to sell alcohol to be consumed off-premises. That fee will apply to bars, restaurants, hotels and other event spaces, according to the ordinance.

Other changes include removing the additional license that used to be required for all establishments, except campgrounds, to sell alcohol on Sundays, and changing the maximum number of licenses that can be issued to bars.

“Numerous times the council had discussions on gaming parlors and their license and how to restrict the number of gaming parlors,” Rock Falls Mayor Rod Kleckler said at the Feb. 17 meeting when the ordinance was first presented to the council.

Gaming parlors are defined by the ordinance as bars that make over 50% of their revenue from the use of those machines. Those places are now required to have a Class F-1 license to sell alcohol that’s consumed onsite seven days a week, with an annual fee of $2,700. Only six of those licenses can be issued by the city at any one time.

The Class A-1 license, which used to be the license required for gaming parlors, is now only for bars that make 50% or less of their total revenue from gaming machines. That license has an annual $2,200 fee, and the number of those licenses issued has been limited to 18, slightly less than the previous 20.

Rock Falls bar owners are also now required to provide the city with documentation of their revenue to determine which license type each qualifies for.

Both license types also now require the purchase of an additional license for $200 annually to sell alcohol that’s consumed off-site, where previously that was included.

“We looked at the fact that really none of the gaming parlors are producing any sales tax revenue,” Kleckler said Feb. 17. He added that they are making those licenses more expensive “to try to bring them into a contributing factor of our business area.”

At the Feb. 17 meeting, the council approved an ordinance with a 5-3 vote that also targeted gaming machines. It raised the annual fee imposed on each machine in an establishment from $125 to $175.

According to the Illinois Gaming Board, municipalities also profit off taxes on the machines’ revenues. In 2025, Rock Falls made $416,040 from the machine tax on 162 machines in 29 establishments. In 2026, the amount of machines has gone down to 146 at 26 establishments.