Clock begins ticking on potential Chicago casino - possibly a year away
Chicagoans will be able to take a pull on legal marijuana joints at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2020.
When will they be able to pull the lever on a slot machine inside a city casino? That's more difficult to say.
Chicago officials - who have sought a casino for more than a quarter of a century - could be held up for months or years as they weigh the benefits and survey possible locations for a city gambling den.
"It could happen fairly quickly," said state Sen. Terry Link, a Vernon Hills Democrat, who has championed gaming in Springfield for two decades. "If all goes according to plan, you could see gambling at a temporary site in less than a year."
The Chicago casino clock started ticking Friday morning, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a massive gambling expansion into law as part of a $45 billion statewide capital plan.
From that point, the Illinois Gaming Board has 10 days under the new law - until next Monday - to hire a private consultant to conduct a "feasibility" study on a potential Chicago casino, assessing how much revenue it would generate for the city.
The consultant then has 45 days to return that study to the city, which then has 90 days - or until late November, roughly in time for the state's fall legislative session - to request any changes with a trailer bill to the law for the Chicago casino licensing process.
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