Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she is “very excited” by the five “very interesting, very robust and very well-thought-out” bids she recently received for a Chicago casino.
Lightfoot said she plans to send a “final list to recommend” to the Illinois Gaming Board “sometime in the first quarter” of 2022.
“We’re very, very interested in moving this process along as expeditiously as possible because, as you know, the revenue from that casino will fund our police and fire pensions,” Lightfoot said. She reiterated that she will not comment on specific sites “until we make a final decision,” and has left site selection up to the developers.
“Our team is still going through and analyzing them. Our expectation is that we will bring the various respondents in and let them do presentations,” Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot’s office has said it will create a review committee consisting of a cross-section of city departments to recommend a bidder. Lightfoot will have the final say on which bid will be presented for city council approval. And the Illinois Gaming Board will choose the licensee.
Bidders include Rhode Island-based Bally’s Corp., which presented two separate proposals; Florida-based gaming giant Hard Rock International; and two groups with proposals led by Rush Street Gaming, led by Chicago casino magnate Neil Bluhm.
Last month, Bluhm’s company pulled out of the competition for a new casino in Waukegan, sparking rumors Rush Street was focusing on the Chicago proposal. Rush Street presented two proposals that each hint at a casino location: Rivers Chicago at McCormick LLC and Rivers 78 Gaming LLC.
Bluhm has long been considered a leading contender for the Chicago casino license, since Rush Street operates Rivers Casino Des Plaines, the state’s most lucrative casino. He also has close ties to Lightfoot, who’s received more than $200,000 in campaign contributions from Bluhm’s daughter Leslie and her sister Meredith Bluhm-Wolf.
Rush Street Gaming CEO Greg Carlin said Bluhm’s company “is offering the city two distinct options on two outstanding sites, with two great local development teams, which take advantage of our expertise developing from the ground up and operating some of the most successful casinos in North America.”
The fifth Chicago casino bid comes from Florida-based gaming giant Hard Rock International, which identified its chosen site as the proposed One Central development that would sit just across Dusable Lake Shore Drive from Soldier Field. Hard Rock’s proposal is HR Chicago LLC. The company is developing a casino in Rockford and recently opened a casino in nearby Gary, Indiana.
Bally’s submitted proposals for a casino at the Chicago Tribune publishing center near Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street and at the McCormick Place truck marshaling yard. Both proposals call for $1.6 billion investments, including a luxury hotel, indoor and outdoor entertainment center, green space and fine dining. Last month Bally’s took over the former Jumer’s Casino in Rock Island.
