Video gambling didn't turn Illinois in a circle of hell - Chicago politics turned the entire state into a circle of hell. Probably a good 90-95% geographically in Illinois would love to kick Chicago/Cook County out of the state.
The Chicagoland metro makes up 75% of Illinois' population. Illinois would just be a corn colony without Chicago. But I will agree with you that Illinois is, politically speaking, a mismanaged dumpster fire and has been for decades in large part due to the Chicago-style patronage system.
