Lightfoot picks Bally's to run Chicago casino
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has picked her casino winner. It's Bally's, which will get the right to build and operate the potentially lucrative gambling complex.
Bally's plans a casino on the Chicago Tribune printing plant site along the Chicago River between Chicago and Grand avenues, if the City Council and the Illinois Gaming Board ratify her choice.
In the last week, Bally's upped their upfront payment offer from $25 million to $40 million to help seal the deal. Bally's was the only one of the three finalists to include the payment in their initial offer to the city.
Sources told Crain's Lightfoot sought a hefty payment from each of the operators in final negotiations, potentially as high as $75 million, but the other two bidders did not match the $40 million offered by Bally's.