The future of Bally’s Chicago may still be uncertain, but the casino is already celebrating a major milestone at its temporary location in the Medinah Temple. 

Bally’s Chicago welcomed its 1 millionth visitor late last week, surpassing that mark nine months after opening in September 2023. 

Casino Now Among Top Chicago Attractions, Bally’s Says

Don Neushwander and his partner Hwa, from Morris, Illinois, were the lucky visitors who ticked the casino over the mark to 1 million visitors. The pair were awarded with $1,000 in cash, a Carnival cruise for two, and a dinner for two at Kitchen 888, an on-site restaurant specializing in Asian street food. 

Monthly admissions have steadily climbed for the Bally’s casino, with May 2024 outpacing the initial September 2023 visitations by 48 percent. 

“In short order, our temporary Bally’s Chicago Casino is on track to have as many annual visitors as popular attractions like the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry and the Art Institute of Chicago,” said Mark Wong, vice president and general manager of Bally’s Chicago.

While the temporary location has been successful in drawing gamblers, Bally’s has been just as focused on what the facility hasn’t done – cause undo impacts on traffic in the local area.

“We thank the tremendous efforts of all of the first responders including Chicago Police, Chicago Fire, onsite Illinois Gaming Agents and the onsite Illinois State Police who maintain public safety and add to the vibrant recovery of River North and the Magnificent Mile,” Bally’s president George Papanier said in a statement. 

Note: The future development of Illinois online casinos remains unclear.

Debt, Funding Issues Loom Over Future of Bally’s Chicago

Bally’s Chicago has been well attended, capturing the second-most visitors of any casino in Illinois since opening. However, revenues have not lived up to expectations set by local lawmakers. The facility brought in only about a quarter of the tax payments former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot budgeted for in 2023, and while numbers are increasing monthly, they are still well below projections.

Bally’s expects even bigger numbers once it can build its permanent facility in River West. The company will take control of the Tribune Freedom Center later this month, and then plans to demolish the structure to make way for a modern casino complex.

However, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson recently told the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board that the fate of that project was “still to be determined.” Bally’s has previously said that there is an approximately $800 million funding gap between what the company has raised for the casino and the $1.7 billion it plans to spend to bring its vision to life. There are still questions over the exact makeup of some elements of the facility, after it was discovered that some construction plans would have damaged the city’s water pipes. 

Some investors in Bally’s have also cautioned that a takeover bid by company chairman Soo Kim could endanger the Chicago casino project, saying that the move would only add more leverage to the company’s existing debt issues. Bally’s ended 2023 with $3.6 billion in debt with just $163.2 million in cash on hand.

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