The Illinois Gaming Board recently granted Rivers Casino in Des Plaines the state’s first land-based casino license. Within the next few weeks, the casino will add up to 120 gaming positions in areas not located above water. Currently the casino offers 1,200 gaming positions. Rivers spokesman Patrick Skarr said, “We’re incrementally adding these games. By going land-based, we can reconfigure some of our existing footprint not above water, add these games and positions within that, and then move forward with our larger expansion program.”
Rivers is the state’s top-grossing riverboat casino, generating more than $400 million in annual gaming revenue.
Rivers owner Rush Street Gaming is planning a $150 million expansion, ultimately increasing the number of gaming positions to 2,000, the maximum allowed under the state’s new gaming law. Rivers also has started building a sports bar which will become a sportsbook, pending regulatory approval, Skarr said.
Sports betting is legal under the new gambling law. The gaming board recently said it would begin taking sports betting license applications next month from the state’s 10 casinos, three horse tracks and seven largest sports facilities. The initial license fee is $10 million each. In addition, three online-only licenses will be made available at $20 million each.
The gambling law also authorizes six new casino licenses in the state. Rush Street Gaming, which sold a 61 percent stake in Rivers to Churchill Downs in March, is one of three applicants for a new Waukegan casino. Altogether the state received 10 applications for five of the six new casino licenses by the October 28 deadline. That excludes a proposed Chicago casino, which is on hold over concerns that a 33.3 gambling tax would scare away developers.
The gaming board received one application each for new casinos in Rockford, Danville and Williamson County in southern Illinois. It received four applications for a proposed casino in the south suburbs, to be located in Calumet City, Homewood/East Hazel Crest, Lynwood or Matteson.
However, a group called FACTS or Families Against Casinos Taking the Southland has been formed to protest the $300 million Matteson casino proposal. The group’s spokesman Joseph Carlasare said, “Number one is congestion, traffic, crime. We really don’t think it’s going to have the result they think in terms of tax revenue. In fact, we think it will have the opposite result and a negative impact on property taxes.”
Matteson Mayor Sheila Chalmers-Curran responded, “We’re talking about $200 million in reference to the impact here. That’s an enormous amount that would really be a big help here, the jobs that would come here in Matteson. This is a great opportunity for us.”
