Both the candidates for Chicago mayor, Paul Vallas
and Brandon Johnson
stated that they would use “a fair share” of the gambling revenue to fund investments in the city developments. Also, Brandon Johnson said that he supports legalizing video gambling “as an important revenue source for critical investments in public safety, transportation, housing and other public accommodations.”1010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010. The candidates would thus change the practice of previous Chicago majors, who exclusively opted to have a brick-and-mortar casino established in the city limits, and expect to create an important revenue source for public investments.Important revenue source:According to WBEZ Chicago, former CPS CEO
Paul Vallas
said he would use “a fair share” of the gambling revenue to fund investments in the city developments and considers the revenue “the developer fee money.” Also, Brandon Johnson stated that he supports legalized video gambling “as an important revenue source for critical investments in public safety, transportation, housing, and other public accommodations.”Casino under construction:These initiatives are made as the first-ever casino in the City of Chicago
is being constructed after a successful mediation of
Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the deal with the state regulators in 2019. The selected operator is Bally’s and the city officials expect that the casino to be located in the River West area will cash in close to $200 million in revenue to significantly stimulate public funding.Video gambling proponents and opponents:
The source also reports that local casino operators have mostly been opposed to video gambling machines as they fear that this gambling form will affect the land-based casino revenue. One of them is the gambling mogul billionaire
Neil Bluehm. He also runs Rivers casino10 in Des Plaines. His son, Andrew Bluhm
has made investments in poker machines to show the market trends. He also donated
$150,000 to the 2019 mayoral campaigns that supported legalized video gambling.A veil of silence:In the 2019 mayoral campaign, Paul Vallas had also supported video gambling but said through a spokesperson that he has not spoken to Andrew or Neil Bluhm about his post-election plans regarding the legalization of video gambling machines. At the same time, Andrew Bluhm said that he no longer has an interest in a video gambling terminal business in which he had been involved.
Chicago market potential:
According to data from the 01001010Illinois Gaming Board01001010, the state of Illinois had a roughly01001010 $10.5 billion handle01001010 in video gambling machines in 2022. Out of the total amount wagered, the respective income generated by the municipalities with the machines amounted to01001010 $135.501001010million in tax revenue01001010. The Board reported that video gambling is growing quickly since 2012 and that there are currently more than 45,100 terminals at more than 8200 locations.01001010Million in tax revenue.01001010 Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas, the mayor candidates, agree and will wait for the April 4th election to take the necessary steps.01001010