A casino for a Chicago has been a goal of Lightfoot and past mayors going back decades.
Chicago Tribune Freedom Center property, right, along Chicago Avenue between the Chicago River and Halsted Street, on March 22, 2022.
The casino, Lightfoot said, sends a signal of Chicago’s ongoing economic recovery after it was battered by COVID-19 and civil unrest. And, she said, it’s a better alternative to residents going to Indiana to gamble.Bally’s succeeded for a variety of reasons, Lightfoot said, including that they don’t have a competing casino in the Chicagoland region and reached a labor peace agreement with the Chicago Federal of Labor.
Soo Kim, the 47-year-old chairman of Bally’s and founding partner of New York hedge fund Standard General, the casino company’s largest shareholders, was on hand for the announcement Thursday. He welcomed the news, but acknowledged the challenges at hand. In 2020, Lightfoot successfully pushed lawmakers to authorize a Chicago casino, giving her a win that had eluded mayors for decades. Lightfoot also succeeded in her efforts to get the tax structure changed so as to make a casino more attractive for potential bidders.
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