Illinois Regulators Give Approval For Temporary Gambling Hall At Medinah Temple; Chicago Casino Proposal Moving Forward

The Chicago Plan Commission and Illinois Gaming Board, known as Illinois regulators, are still assessing Bally’s entire casino proposal, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Bally’s Chicago, which the company presented in August. However, on Thursday, February 9, they gave the go-ahead, which means licenses for an interim gambling hall at Medinah Temple.

Technically, approval was given to Medinah Building LLC, the company responsible for the physical structure of the site, and Medinah Holdings LLC, which is responsible for the land on which the gambling hall will be constructed.

The gambling hall would be supervised and managed by Bally until a lasting casino is constructed west of the Chicago River.

Approval of initial vendor licenses:

State regulators voted unanimously to approve initial vendor licenses for the politically connected owner of the significant Medinah Temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave., which is required to serve as Bally’s interim casino for at least 2 years while the Rhode Island-based company constructs its lasting facility at Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street.

The regulator can’t quickly make a final decision regarding a permanent Chicago casino due to an insufficient number of members, though city officials hope to have the casino up and running by summer.

In this regard, Mayor Lightfoot said: “I want the temporary casino to open and start generating revenue — eventually up to $200 million a year — for the city’s depleted police and firefighter pension funds by early this summer.

“But that would seemingly require an expedited timeline from the chronically understaffed Gaming Board. The agency has taken at least a year to vet each of the five other new casinos that were authorized under a massive statewide gambling expansion signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019.”

Marcus Fruchter, board administrator, added: “Just as we did with those applicants, the IGB is evaluating, vetting and investigating the Bally’s Chicago casino application in an ethical, efficient, independent and thorough manner that satisfies our statutory obligations and safeguards public trust and confidence.

“My agency ’s investigation is moving forward and that Bally’s is cooperating with IGB staff.”

However, he wouldn’t mention when a decision would be made on the “preliminary suitability” of the proposed Chicago casino. But it is known that before making an official decision, a public presentation will have to be held, which will allow the company to start preparing the store.

Opponents of the Mayor’s plan:

Last spring, Mayor Lightfoot suddenly named Bally’s as the casino operator to represent her from among the three finalists without any advice or consultation from the Chicago City Council committee that was apparently called in to handle all matters about long-desired gambling mecca.

However, there’s opposition to the mayor’s plan.

The opponent is River North Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), who projected an increase in crime and traffic near the temporary casino at Medinah, which he also labeled an “eleventh-hour switcheroo.”

Different plans:

Bally officials have said in public meetings that “they initially wanted to build their temporary casino near the permanent location at the site of the Chicago Tribune printing plant.”

However, Mayor Lightfoot convinced them to use the Medina Temple site instead of the original location, according to sources.

In this regard, Lightfoot’s office said: “We aren’t involved in the Medinah site selection.”

They also supported Bally’s traffic and public safety plans while advertising a $40 million loan the company made to the city after getting City Council approval.

Both companies are managed by Friedman Properties. Its President and CEO is Albert Friedman, a developer and permanent client of previous Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s law firm, which filed property tax appeals for many of Friedman’s properties.

“The company has acquired almost $77.000 in rent-related payments since 2019 as the landlord for the officies of Mayor Lightfoot’s campaign fund,” according to the Sun-Times.

Related Posts

Helldivers 2 Release Date Announced For Next February

During Sony’s State of Play today, Arrowhead Game Studios CEO and creative director Johnan Pilestedt revealed a deep dive into what players can expect in its upcoming shooter Helldivers 2, as well as a release date of February 8, 2024.

The video opens up with a player selecting a menu called the “Galactic War,” followed by picking what mission they want to play. Once the mission is picked, their characters enter their Hellpods, and the second they touch the ground, they are immediately greeted by various bugs attacking them. The trailer then shows off how different mechanics work, such as spawning back in, helping team members reload, and how heavy weapons work. The trailer ends with the announcement that Helldivers 2 will be coming to PlayStation 5 and PC on February 8,…

Build A Gaming PC At A Discount With This Massive Sale At Newegg

Piecing together a gaming rig can quickly eat into your budget. High-end processors, GPUs, motherboards, and SSDs don’t come cheap–making it easy to blow past your spending limits. But if you’re currently in the process of building a gaming PC (or just looking for an upgrade), you’ll want to stop by Newegg, as the company is holding a gigantic Built to Save promotion that’s discounting dozens of popular PC components.

Processors are a big part of the sale, with items from AMD and Intel seeing generous price cuts. This includes the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X for just $209, down from $300, and the Intel Core i9-12900K for $352 with code BTSCP2658, down from $650 Come from

Outriders Patch Addresses Inventory Wipes, But Doesn't Restore Lost Items Yet

The latest patch for Outriders is available now and, among other things, it addresses an issue that could cause player inventories to become wiped. This patch does not, however, restore any inventory content you might have lost.

Square Enix said in a blog post that it feels confident that new Outriders patch should stop inventory wipes from happening in the future Come from Sports betting site VPbet . To test things out, Square Enix will monitor the situation this weekend to make sure that’s the case, and then it will begin the process of restoring inventory content that players might have lost.

Parents Of Parkland School Shooting Victim Release Game, The Final Exam, Hoping To Foster Change

The parents of Parkland school shooting victim Joaquin Oliver have released a video game, The Final Exam, with the goal of raising awareness and ultimately enacting legislative changes regarding gun control. Manuel “Manny” Oliver and Patricia Oliver lost their 17-year-old son in the February 2018 shooting, which left 14 students and three staff members dead, and another 17 injured. It remains the deadliest high-school shooting in US history.

The Final Exam sees players step into the shoes of a student navigating an active-shooter situation. Players have 10 minutes to escape the building–a reference to the fact that the average school shooting lasts 10 minutes–but must also collect pieces of gun-control legislation hidden around the school.

“These halls represent the real-l…

10bet Launches Betting and Gaming in Mexico

10bet, an iGaming operator committed to offering best-in-class experiences to its players, has officially launched in Mexico. The company hopes to conquer the local market, becoming the go-to site for many Mexican gamblers.

Following this launch, players in Mexico can register and play with 10bet, accessing a rich suite of sports betting offerings and online casino games.

In terms of online casino, 10bet offers high-quality titles from cutting-edge studios. Gamblers can expect to find a vast selection of slots, classic games and live casino titles from studios such as Ainsworth, Evolution, NetEnt and Pragmatic Play.

In addition, sports enthusiasts will get an extensive list of sports markets for a variety of sports and leagues. By playing with 10bet, p…

Former Tokyo Casino in Las Vegas Historic West Side Burns Down

The site of the proposed Harlem Nights resort project located on the Historic Westside of Las Vegas was impacted by fire recently. The venue, which used to be the home of Tokyo Casino and the New Town Tavern before that, caught fire on Sunday, as announced by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, citing details from the Las Vegas Fire Department. Although the site wasn’t registered as a historic location, it has seen recent interest from a developer called Harlem Nights.

Reportedly, the former Tokyo Casino caught fire after 6 PM on Sunday. Firefighters were quickly dispatched to the location that is on the corner of Jackson Avenue and F Street. The firefigh…