230 ILCS 10/7.12: Issuance of new owners licenses.

(a) Owners licenses newly authorized pursuant to this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly may be issued by the Board to a qualified applicant pursuant to an open and competitive bidding process, as set forth in Section 7.5, and subject to the maximum number of authorized licenses set forth in subsection (e-5) of Section 7 of this Act.

(b) To be a qualified applicant, a person or entity may not be ineligible to receive an owners license under subsection (a) of Section 7 of this Act and must submit an application for an owners license that complies with Section 6 of this Act.

(c) In determining whether to grant an owners license to an applicant, the Board shall consider all of the factors set forth in subsections (b) and (e-10) of Section 7 of this Act, as well as the amount of the applicant's license bid. The Board may grant the owners license to an applicant that has not submitted the highest license bid, but if it does not select the highest bidder, the Board shall issue a written decision explaining why another applicant was selected and identifying the factors set forth in subsections (b) and (e-10) of Section 7 of this Act that favored the winning bidder.