Bally’s offered Wednesday to move quickly to install lounges filled with slot machines at O’Hare and Midway airports and “substitute” that revenue for the $6.8 million the city was counting on by lifting the ban on video gambling terminals.
Christopher Jewett, senior vice president for corporate development at Bally’s, said each of the four passenger terminals at O’Hare as well as the one at Midway could support one slot machine lounge.
“We believe one lounge can generate approximately $5 million in actual gaming and admission taxes, which go directly to the city,” Jewett told the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development. “This alone can replace the revenue in question.”
