Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently said she has some locations in mind for the city’s first casino. Proposals will be accepted later this month and the casino is expected to open by 2025. Lightfoot said she would hope to expedite that schedule by allowing a temporary location. Bloomberg reported the selected company could operate a temporary casino for up to 36 months.
Lightfoot said she wants the final spot selected for the casino to be more than just a gambling venue. “We need to create an entertainment district, so that we have good paying jobs not only on the front end, through the construction, but on the back end. We need a tourist destination for people all over the world to come see this latest attraction in the great city of Chicago,” Lightfoot stated.
The city’s single resort casino is expected to include gaming, a hotel, restaurants, entertainment and meeting and convention facilities. Operators considering forwarding a proposal will have to weigh the benefits of an essential monopoly for a single company partnering with the city against the 40 percent effective gaming tax rate—which was even higher until the state legislature reduced it last year.
In response to Chicago’s 17-page “request for information,” 11 companies, including four gaming operators, offered suggestions to questions about possible locations, the minimum and maximum number of hotel rooms, square footage for amenities, the effects of Covid-19 and temporary facilities.
The four casino operators were Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts Ltd. and MGM Resorts International, Florida’s Hard Rock International and Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming. Four real estate developers, a casino feasibility consultant and a casino financier (MGM’s affiliated MGM Growth Properties REIT) and a neighborhood organization also submitted answers to the city’s questions.
Wynn Resorts in a statement said, “When a city of significance decides to consider a gaming resort, we are always interested in exploring the opportunity.” The company’s Encore Boston Harbor illustrates its experience developing a casino resort in an urban area.
MGM also has developed casinos in downtown Detroit, downtown Springfield, Massachusetts and the Washington, D.C. area.
Hard Rock, owned by Florida’s Seminole Indian Tribe, operates hotels worldwide and casino resorts in Atlantic City and Biloxi, Mississippi.
Rush Street, headed by billionaire and Chicago resident Neil Bluhm, may have a hometown advantage because of its familiarity with the Chicago region. It has developed casino properties in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Des Plaines, Illinois and Schenectady, New York under the Rivers Casino brand.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. also has been suggested as a Chicago casino resort developer. It successfully operated properties in Las Vegas, Macao and Singapore. Most recently it has focused on Texas but could shift its attention to Chicago due to the political environment in Texas and fading prospects for gambling there.
Other names mentioned include Las Vegas’ newest casino operator, Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment, the Genting Group, Boyd Gaming, Penn National Gaming and Golden Nugget.
Las Vegas-based Union Gaming Analyst Grant Govertsen noted Caesars Entertainment probably wouldn’t be interested in Chicago. That’s because Caesars is well-established in Illinois and Indiana markets close to Chicago. Also it could face regulatory concerns about market saturation.
