That’s a crazy idea because of River North’s traffic congestion. The Bally proposal also promises to utilize union labor and give the city another $4 million a year in additional funds.īally also plans to open a temporary casino in the Medinah Temple building (left) at 600 North Wabash Avenue in the third quarter of 2023. The proposed Bally casino is projected to pump $200 million a year into city coffers when it opens in the first quarter of 2026. With the city drowning in $47 billion in pension fund debt, Mayor Lightfoot is desperate for gambling tax cash. seven days a week and will eventually be a 24/7 operation, Bally’s said.Experts say the choice of the Bally site at the nearly impassable corner of Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street is likely the worst possible location for a successful, money-making casino to bail the city out of its pension debacle.Ģ3-May-22 – Some experts are calling Bally’s River West – the much-ballyhooed site for Chicago’s $1.6 billion gaming extravaganza – Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s “casino-for-dummies.” Until then, the lights will be fired up at Medinah Temple, the 111-year-old former headquarters of the Shriners fraternal organization that now houses almost 800 slot machines and 56 table games. Mayor Lori Lightfoot finally made it happen in 2019, and the city is banking on up to $50 million a year in tax revenue from Medinah Temple, which will serve as Bally’s temporary casino for three years while it builds a larger, permanent facility at the site of the Chicago Tribune printing plant in River West. But neither he nor his successor Rahm Emanuel could reach a deal with lawmakers for a Chicago casino license. Daley first embraced the casino concept in 1992. That’s been the goal since former Mayor Richard M. Nevertheless, she said she was still 'excited to win.'Ĭity officials are hoping to win a steady stream of cash from the casino to Chicago’s nearly insolvent police and firefighter pension funds.

Carolyn Williams, the fourth person in line, said she had trouble finding a parking garage open that early and was miffed to learn it wasn’t free. Wabash Ave.īut there was an early indication of the possible congestion issues posed by the house of chance in the heart of a busy tourist district.

'If you see me walking out like this, it means I lost,' one woman said, melodramatically slouched over.īeyond that, there was little fanfare when security workers started waving patrons inside the glass doors at 600 N.

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