The Illinois Gaming Board recently voted 4-0 to grant “preliminary suitability” status to two new casino gaming licenses. One will go to Las Vegas-based Full House Resorts for a casino at the shuttered Fountain Square mall in Waukegan. The second will go to the Alabama-based Wind Creek Hospitality, a subsidiary of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians for a location straddling the border of south suburban Homewood and East Hazel Crest, beating out the competing suburb Matteson. The announcements end a process that lasted more than two years due to Covid-19 closures and other delays. Calumet City and Lynwood were dropped from the bidding process in October.
Full House Resorts has proposed the $400 million American Place in Waukegan. Chief Development Officer Alex Stolyar said, “We appreciate the confidence the Gaming Board put in us and we will now begin working to build the spectacular American Place and make the state of Illinois and the city of Waukegan proud.” Stolyar said the company expects to open a temporary casino within several months. Among amenities, he said the project will cater to high-rollers with “ultra-luxurious” villas and a helicopter landing pad.
Wind Creek Hospitality Chief Executive Officer Jay Dorris said $440 million, 64,000-square-foot casino, 21-story hotel and entertainment center are expected to open in 2023. “We look forward to expanding our network of relationships in the Southland, working closely with leaders, organizations and residents to ensure that the benefits associated with this project are felt by the entire region. Our site is in both villages, and both the mayors of those villages have been great to work with. They’ve been adamant this is going to benefit the entire Southland.”
Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld said Wind Creek Hospitality’s proposal “benefits not only us and East Hazel Crest, but the entire Southland. We’re talking about jobs, good jobs.” Wind Creek Hospitality operates 10 gambling operations in Alabama, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania and the Caribbean.
The Gaming Board had been set to award the Waukegan license last month but delayed its decision “out of respect for the judicial process” as the Forest County Potawatomi Community’s lawsuit against Waukegan worked its way through the courts. The Wisconsin tribe filed suit in 2019 after the city eliminated its proposal for the North Point casino. Tribal officials said the process was “rigged” by previous city officials to favor a bid−rejected by the Gaming Board−backed by former state Senator Michael Bond, who spent thousands on local elections.
But recently, Cook County Judge Cecilia Horan rejected the tribe’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop the Gaming Board from moving forward with licensing. Horan ruled tribe didn’t have legal standing under Illinois’ gambling laws to stop the process. She wrote, “Potawatomi doesn’t come in as a resident of Waukegan, or even a resident of the state of Illinois, but comes in as a competitor of the other casinos in an effort to be able to open a casino. So I don’t believe that plaintiff is an entity that the statute was designed to protect.” Horan added, “The casino is not going to open tomorrow. There are still many, many steps before anyone opens a casino in Waukegan.”
A Potawatomi spokesman said the tribe will continue to pursue ‘all available legal paths, including continuing to participate in the ongoing federal mediation with the city, to find the best solution for the citizens of Waukegan.” North Point partner Bill Warner said the developers were “disappointed” but noted Bond’s group “stands ready to work” if the Full House bid falls through.
In Matteson, Village President Sheila Chalmers-Currin said she was “in disbelief” that the city’s bid, in partnership with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, was rejected by the Gaming Board. Dozens of mayors in the Southland Regional Mayoral Black Caucus supported Matteson’s proposal. Chalmers-Currin said, “Obviously, diversity was not top on the list of things to move us forward in the Gaming Board’s approval process. We all know why we’re doing this, in reference to diversity and to economic growth. The impact would have been enormous. I offer my congratulations to Homewood, but there are still quite a few questions that I hope to have answered.”
Developer Rob Miller added, “It would have been the very first gaming project in Illinois history that would have been 100 percent owned by minorities, women and veterans.”
Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation creating six new casino licenses in 2018. Only the Hard Rock in Rockford is in operation. Meanwhile, regulators still are reviewing Danville’s revised casino proposal. Mayor Rickey Williams said he was unsure when a hearing regarding preliminary suitability will be held. If that’s approved, Williams said a casino could be open within nine months at the former Morris Flamingo warehouse.
