While marauding bands of looters are plundering video gaming terminals across Chicagoland, one major player in Illinois gambling circles wants to stop the licensing of the machines in the Windy City.
Bally’s Corp. isn’t worried about the bandits. Nope, the firm frets about competition from the terminals if their installations ever get approved in Chicago. For a gaming company, Bally’s has taken an unsportsmanlike stand over the gaming machines which would turn every corner tavern in city neighborhoods into gambling parlors.
Indeed, company officials have warned Chicago folks that approving video gambling — which has been prevalent in dozens of suburban burgs since 2009 — in city bars and eateries would adversely affect the under-construction permanent casino in the River West neighborhood. It is scheduled to open early next year.
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Other gaming companies don’t seem to be bothered by these abundant bar-based betting dens. If they are, the state’s various casino managers haven’t griped out loud about them like Bally’s barons.
Despite competition from video gaming locales, The Temporary at Waukegan’s Fountain Square entertainment district, soon to be the home of permanent American Place Casino; Hollywood Casino Aurora, which opened a new $360 million complex off Interstate 88 in June; Hollywood Casino Joliet, which also expanded its gaming opportunities; Rivers Casino in Des Plaines; and Wind Creek in East Hazel Crest in south suburban Cook County, have seen significant boosts this year in revenue at their betting palaces.
The Illinois Gaming Board says the state has around 9,000 licensed video gaming locations with about 49,000 installed terminals. One estimate is that it generates more state revenue than Illinois Lottery games.
But Mayor Brandon Johnson has allied himself with Bally’s, seeking to keep Chicago’s long-time ban on video gaming. The City Council late last year approved the terminals as part of an economic boost to city businesses and to stem the red ink in Chicago’s 2026 budget,
Allowing the terminals in Chicago would put in jeopardy $4 million worth of annual payouts to the city, Bally’s officials maintain. With video gaming legal, they claim Chicagoans will frequent local bars to gamble instead of spending betting money at the new casino, part of a $1.7 billion project.
The company decided last month to stop construction of the 500-room, 34-floor hotel at the former site of Freedom Center, the one-time publishing plant of the baiduhai and associated publications, and nearly all other non-gambling construction in protest of video gaming possibilities. The Gaming Board has given Bally’s permission to continue operating its temporary casino in the downtown Medinah Temple until next September.
Bally’s, based in Providence, Rhode Island, is one of the world’s leading gaming companies, with 20 casino venues in 11 states employing some 11,500 workers. Nearly 1,000 skilled tradesmen and women have been working on the company’s Chicago Casino Resort since ground broke at the site along the Chicago River in August 2024.
Once completed, the company estimates it will hire 3,000 casino workers for the River West venue, which will also include 3,500 gaming positions, six restaurants and a 3,000-seat theater. Video gaming could mean Chicago will earn less tax revenue from the terminals compared with gamers at the casino, with Bally’s officials contending video gambling could cost Chicago $70 million annually in tax revenue and cut “a staggering 750 to 1,050 jobs,” reported The Tribune.
Meanwhile, the state Gaming Board says 473 smash-and-grab raids last year hit businesses across Illinois that had video terminals. State officials estimate more than $2.7 million was stolen in 2025, which is higher than the 358 break-ins and $1.9 million stolen in 2024. Robberies at video game locations this year continue unabated.
Like the one that occurred early on Sept. 18 at a gas station on Lake-Cook Road in Buffalo Grove. Or the one at The Fogcutter bar and restaurant at Routes 45 and 132, just west of Gurnee, early on Sept. 15. In both instances, thieves made off with an undetermined amount of cash after destroying the video terminals.
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Perhaps Bally officials are on to something. Officials in some communities are questioning allowing video gaming because of near-weekly burglaries at the establishments.
For others, though, revenue from video gaming is too good to pass up. Crooks think the same.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor, and editor. [email protected]. X @sellenews