Politics

Bally’s Chicago Casino Rang Up Just $15.8M in New Tax Revenue in 2025: Data

Bally’s temporary Chicago casino rang up just $15.28 million in new gaming tax revenue for the city in 2025, down slightly from 2024, Chicago financial officials told members of the Chicago City Council on Thursday.

Approximately 1.3 million people visited the temporary casino at River North’s Medinah Temple in 2025, about the same number of visitors as the previous year, leading to a 1.3% drop in tax revenues, Bally’s Chicago President Ameet Patel told the City Council’s Contracting and Oversight Equity Committee.

That’s why Bally’s is working as quickly as possible to open the city’s first permanent casino in River West by the end of the year, Patel said.

“I’m very confident it will be the pride of Chicago,” Patel said.

The temporary casino, which opened in September 2023, has rung up just $87 million in new tax revenue for the city, according to city data.

More than 60% of those revenues came from the $52 million in flat fees Bally’s agreed to pay as part of the deal approved by the City Council in December 2022 that ended a 30-year effort to bring casino gambling to Chicago.

Although committee members quizzed city officials and representatives of Bally’s about the temporary casino’s operations and efforts to finish construction on the permanent casino, there was no discussion of the City Council’s decision to legalize video poker and slot machines in every Chicago bar or restaurant with a liquor license as part of the city’s 2026 budget.

A study by a city consultant warned the decision could cost nearly 400 jobs at Bally’s permanent casino.

In addition, city officials expect Bally’s will stop paying the city $4 million annually, as called for in the agreement it reached with Chicago officials in 2022 for the city’s first, and only, casino license.

But Chicagoans eager to try their luck at their favorite neighborhood watering hole will have to wait until state officials grant gaming licenses, a lengthy process that will take at least six months, officials said.

Bally’s was fourth in the Chicago area for casino revenue with nearly $125 million in adjusted gross revenue, the amount of money received by the casino operator, minus the winnings paid to those who tried their luck and won.

That is much less than the more than $253 million city officials had originally projected the temporary casino would generate, funneling significantly more tax revenue into the city’s cash-strapped coffers in 2025.

With the support of state Rep. Kam Buckner, Bally’s has asked state officials to allow it continue to operate the temporary casino for an additional year, until September 2027.

Chris Jewett, Bally’s senior vice president of corporate development, told the committee the temporary casino may have to operate longer than expected because the permanent casino had to be redesigned after city officials determined the initial site of the project’s 35-story hotel tower would damage city water pipes.

It is also unclear whether crews will be done rebuilding the Ohio Street bridge and feeder ramps to the Kennedy Expressway by the summer as scheduled, in time for the planned opening of the casino, hotel and concert venue, Jewett said.

Bally’s has made good on promises to hire Black, Latino and Asian Chicagoans to work at the casino with the casino’s workforce largely reflective of the city’s racial makeup, according to the report presented to the City Council.

City officials had been counting on a permanent casino to boost the city’s economy and send approximately $200 million into its police and fire pension funds, significantly easing the pressure on the city’s finances while creating thousands of jobs and drawing tourists — and their fat wallets.

But for the second year in a row, many alderpeople expressed skepticism that the jackpot would ever materialize.

“This has not worked,” Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) said.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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