Summary:
- Bally’s Chicago has celebrated one year at the temporary casino at Medinah Temple.
- The 1.3M visitors to the city’s first casino generated $12.9M in local taxes, lower than projections.
- Demolition work has started at the permanent casino site.
On Monday, Bally’s Chicago celebrated its one-year anniversary at the temporary site of the city’s first casino in the state of Illinois.
Following its assessment of the year that has passed, the company announced that the venue, which has already welcomed over 1.3 million visitors since its opening at the Medinah Temple address, has generated over $114 million in adjusted gross receipts through August 31, a week away from the full 12-month period.
As per data from the Illinois Gaming Board, the adjusted gross receipts figure placed the temporary casino fourth in terms of revenue when looking at Bally’s 15 state casinos.
Rivers Casino Des Plaines is still in the lead in terms of the state’s top-grossing casinos, with almost $520 million in revenue during the same period under assessment.
Rivers is followed by Bally’s Chicago in terms of visitors. The former received close to 3.1 million visitors over the 12 months leading to August 2024.
For the Windy City, Bally’s has generated local taxes close to $12.9 million in its first 12 months of activity.
The brand new source of revenue for the city was, however, much lower compared to the original projections discussed for the temporary gambling site.
“Proud of How Far We Have Come in Just One Year”
Despite failing to meet the projected local tax numbers, Bally’s Corporation’s president, George Papanier, commented that, since the opening of the temporary casino, they have “strived to meet the commitments” made to the city of Chicago and that they were “proud of how far we have come in just one year”.
The corporation has spent around $50 million on renovation work at the 130,000-square-foot Medinah Temple, the 112-year-old landmarked amphitheater in the Moorish style that used to host the yearly Shrine Circus.
At the moment, the temporary casino that is home to 754 slots and 56 gaming tables, along with an expansive blue-lit center bar and a few restaurants, receives over 100,000 gamblers a month.
The venue is running on a three-year temporary casino license issued by the state as its permanent $1.7 billion casino project with 4,000 gaming positions, 500 hotel rooms, 10 restaurants, an exhibition hall, and a theater with 3,000 seats is getting ready to open in September 2026.
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