Bally’s Chicago is challenged. Bally’s was awarded the Chicago license in May 2022. There were five initial bidders, whittled down to three: Hard Rock, Rush Street, and Bally’s. Then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose Bally’s as the best for Chicago and its goals. Lightfoot and her administration wanted iconic architecture, entertainment and conventions without harming the existing industries, and an investment in the $1.7 billion range. The winning bidder was required to have 25 percent of minority investors and 25 percent of the construction done by minority-owned companies. In the end, Bally’s won, because its bid projected $800 million a year in adjusted gaming revenue.
Chicago is the third largest city in the country and that makes it desirable — expensive, but still desirable. That is what the city hoped for when it first put out feelers, but the response was less than overwhelming. None of the topflight gaming companies expressed an interest; the tax rate was given as one of the reasons. The mayor took that to heart and convinced the legislature to lower the proposed tax rate from 70 percent to 40 percent. With the new tax rate in hand, Chicago sent out a request for proposals. Still, no one from Las Vegas applied and the lack of Vegas competitors increased Bally’s chances.
Bally’s is ambitious and expansion minded. It began life as BLB Investments, which then morphed into Twin River. Its primary asset was Lincoln Park in Rhode Island, a dog track with slots. In 2007, Twin River expanded Lincoln Park into a full-fledged casino and rebranded it as Bally’s Twin River Lincoln. Beginning in 2014, Bally’s started to expand outside of Rhode Island with purchases in Mississippi and beyond. By 2024, the company had 19 casinos in 11 states, a golf course in New York, a racetrack in Colorado, and igaming and sports betting platforms. Bally’s also has one casino in Great Britain. Last month it purchased Star Entertainment in Australia. In 2024, Bally’s revenue was $2.45 billion.
Bally’s is also a bidder for a New York City license. Clearly, the corporation sees itself as a player on the world’s gaming stage. In that light, pursuing Chicago is perfectly logical. It also means the company is vulnerable to making poor choices. As in this case, Chicago was not the primary focus; it was just a necessary step in the overall expansion goal. That goal distracted the corporation and limited critical thinking on the value of Chicago as a license.
The same thing happened to Harrah’s (now Caesars) in the 1990s. After Bill Harrah died in 1978, the corporation sold, sold, and sold again. During one of its iterations, Harrah’s set out to have a casino in every jurisdiction where gambling was legal and in the process accumulate the largest database in the industry. One of the most prized potential casino sites was New Orleans. Analysts and operators alike considered New Orleans to be potentially a top-tier location for a casino.
It took Harrah’s seven years, but in 1999, Harrah’s New Orleans opened. The process was long and expensive, filled with failures, expensive compromises, and concessions. The property never really met expectations, mostly because the expectations were not realistic; the market was not big enough and Harrah’s paid too much. Harrah’s stretched too far to achieve its goal. In Chicago, Bally’s may be in the same boat.
Bally’s opened a temporary casino in Chicago in September 2023 in the Medinah Temple. The temporary casino produces about $10 million a month in gross gaming revenue, nothing to write home about. And it is only about 10 percent of the projected revenue of the permanent facility. The press reminds Bally’s, the regulators, and anyone who will listen of that fact every month. The press is not the only problem Bally’s has faced. There have been problems with the site and other issues. Bally’s was forced to redo its designs and rescale the property. In December 2024, construction was halted for nearly a month due to an accident that polluted the Chicago River. The IPO to fulfill the minority requirement was disrupted by a lawsuit.
And now, construction has been stopped again. This time, the Illinois Gaming Board ordered the halt. The Board has questions about potential mob connections of a company that hauls waste from the construction site; the Chicago Sun-Times, in its ongoing assault on Bally’s, uncovered and reported on the issue. The cessation of work is not good news for Bally’s. It is faced with a completion-date deadline, September 2026, making every delay critical. Given Bally’s Chicago luck, this is not likely to be the last problem it faces on the road to opening.
To add a little spice to the sauce, a new casino opened in November in the suburbs: Wind Creek Chicago Southland. Wind Creek’s gambling revenue immediately jumped to number two in the state, behind another suburban casino, Rivers Des Plaines. Rivers is the king of the market; it does about three times the revenue of the other casinos in Illinois. There are some nine casinos clustered around the Chicago core and thousands of video lottery terminals located in bars and restaurants. Two casinos are up and running north of the city near the Wisconsin line, with two more coming on the Wisconsin side. The competition Bally’s will be facing is intense.
Bally’s is in a pickle. Its expansion goals may have driven it to stretch a bit too much to get the Chicago license, one that can be viewed as the penultimate prize in gaming, second only to New York City. Or Chicago can also be seen as a muddled, crowded, and overly costly market, a life-threatening sea of quicksand. Take your pick.
