Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick for Chicago’s decades-in-the-making casino was the subject of a grueling six-hour hearing Monday that saw some aldermen complain of a too-rushed selection process.
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The special committee, stacked with Lightfoot allies and established by City Council in March, took no votes, as members in opposition of the gambling complex’s pending location in River West voiced fears that casino plans were advancing too fast and without enough transparency. Still, it was unclear by the meeting’s conclusion which side had more support, as many members kept their allegiance close to their vests.
Last week, Lightfoot chose to put forward a $1.74 billion casino, hotel and entertainment development at what is now the Chicago Tribune’s Freedom Center printing plant. Rhode Island-based Bally’s, which owns and manages 14 casinos in 10 states, hopes to make this one the flagship of its chain.
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Ald. Brendan Reilly, whose 42nd Ward is near the proposed site, went so far as to liken the Bally’s choice to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s deal privatizing the city’s parking meters. Reilly was one of 40 council members who voted in favor and said it “blew up in our faces.”
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Hours later, Reilly would go on to reiterate that the “eleventh-hour” updates to the casino selection process leave him “very frustrated.”
But the special committee’s chairman, Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, sought to address criticism that the mayor and her allies were trying to jam through a deal last minute. He spent several minutes detailing the selection timeline that he said included the city’s five bids being introduced last year.
“There’s been talk about is this is something like the parking meter deal,” Tunney said. “I believe that these are totally different proposals.”
Another nearby alderman to the proposed Bally’s site, Ald. Brian Hopkins of the 2nd Ward, chided city officials for what he described as a rather swift decision, hinting it showed a lack of “transparency.”
The alderman of the 27th Ward where the proposed complex is located, Walter Burnett, meanwhile, urged his colleagues to make haste with the opportunity to welcome a casino, even if he hadn’t initially expected it to be in his ward.
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“In life, you have to learn how to make lemons out of lemonade,” Burnett said. “Nothing is perfect. But also in life, you have to seize the moment. This is one of those instances where you’d have to seize the moment.”
Also speaking at the hearing were the city’s CFO Jennie Huang Bennett and Bally’s chairman Soo Kim, the latter of whom touted the choice as one that will “highlight the best of Chicago.”
Huang Bennett said that calculations show for every year Chicago does not have a casino open, it loses about $331 million in revenue to Indiana. She also said a city budget forecast predicted a $867 million deficit in the next fiscal year — but the revenues from the casino project could make up 9% of annual police and fire pensions.
“Time is of the essence in this project,” Huang Bennett said.
A proposed ordinance that would set the framework for the city to install a casino and allow for gambling, among other aspects, was introduced Monday and could get a committee vote later this month.
