In Illinois, the community of Country Club Hills recently dropped out of the competition for a south suburban Chicago casino license and threw its support behind the town of Matteson, according to Matteson Mayor Sheila Chalmers-Currin. Country Club Hills recently had approved plans to apply for the license.
The community of Crestwood also abruptly pulled out of the running for the south suburban license. Crestwood Mayor Lou Presta said the village learned “at the last minute” it would have to pay a nonrefundable $500,000 application fee. He said the village will consider other options for the 45-acre site where a casino development had been proposed. Crestwood had been partnering with neighboring community of Robbins on the casino project.
In the end, four cities filed gaming license applications with the Illinois Gaming Board by the October 28 deadline: Calumet City, East Hazel Crest/Homewood, Lynwood and Matteson. The board has up to a year to review applications. New casinos also are allowed for Chicago, Rockford, Waukegan and two downstate locations; in southern Illinois, Walker’s Bluff in Carterville and Elite Casino Resorts filed a joint application for a casino license.
Matteson is partnering with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma on a $300 million development. Phase I would include a 123,000-square-foot casino, and a 200-room hotel and convention center to be built later.
Calumet City is partnering with Southland Live Casino, which includes Delaware North, a privately held company that operates a casino in Illinois, on a proposed $275 million development. A temporary casino would open in a vacant department store while a permanent structure is built.
The communities of East Hazel Crest/Homewood are partnering with Wind Creek Hospitality, an enterprise of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Alabama. Plans call for a $300 million first phase including a 64,000-square-foot casino and entertainment center; Phase II would include a 21-story hotel.
The village of Lynwood is partnering with the Ho-Chunk Nation, which operates casinos in Wisconsin, to develop a $300 million casino and hotel on tribal-owned land.
In other Illinois gaming news, a proposed Food-n-Fuel gas station could result in a gambling operation, a few blocks from where Governor J.B. Pritzker’s administration nixed a proposed racino in Tinley Park. If the Food-n-Fuel qualifies as a truck stop, it could install up to 10 video gambling terminals; facilities that don’t qualify as truck stops can install six terminals. Owner Leonard McEnery recently received the village board’s approval to build a second gas station in Tinley Park, and the state gaming board also would have to approve the video gambling machines.
