Casinos and Gambling
The Mirage is gone, undergoing a massive renovation with a new 660-foot purple guitar-shaped tower out front with strings that will shoot beams into the night.
Following questions from the Chicago Sun-Times in 2023, the Illinois Gaming Board moved to revoke the license that had allowed Jeffrey Bertucci’s Firebird Enterprises Inc., to operate video gaming machines at his Steak N Egger franchise in the west suburb. Because he’s appealing, the establishment is still allowed to keep the devices operational, raking in money.
Yesteryear’s affordable collectibles now have endless variations and can be worth big money.
The Illinois Gaming Board is mum on whether Bally’s Casino Chicago will be fined. Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin paid a $3.2 million fine in 2003, when Gov. JB Pritzker had an ownership stake. Rivers Casino in Des Plaines paid $1.65 million in 2016.
The project would transform a 114,000 square-foot commercial building at 700 W. Chicago Ave. into a complex for everything from multiple haunted houses and thrill-packed rides to “sinister scare zones” and “scare actors on the prowl.”
Handicappers offer insight on myriad ways gamblers can get in on some baseball action.
The Westgate SuperBook showed 100-to-1 odds on Illinois to win it all in 2025-26. Less than an hour after the Stojakovic news broke, those odds had changed.
European sides won 16 of the last 20 CWC iterations. It’s even more lopsided, though, since Brazilian squads conquered the first three, in 2000, ’05 and ’06.
Legislators who approved a first-of-its-kind per-wager tax say big gambling corporations like DraftKings can afford another dent in their Illinois profit margins.
As the Trump administration targets diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, Bally’s has expanded its Chicago casino investment program with a preference for city residents.
In 2020, Illinois implemented legal sports wagering at a flat 15% operators’ tax rate. Last summer, it boosted that to 20%, with increments up to 40%. Legislators clawed in for more flesh last weekend with a per-bet tax of 25 to 50 cents.
The project will consist of a 300-room hotel at the Hard Rock Casino, two additional hotels nearby, a 145,000-square-foot convention center and two new restaurants.
According to stat-based Pythagorean extrapolations, the Chiefs (17-3) accumulated 5.2 more victories than they deserved last season.
Pete Rose is a good guy again and sports betting is the new America’s pastime. Isn’t it wonderful?
The work site had been shut down since the Chicago Sun-Times discovered a waste-hauling company with reputed mob ties was being used at the River West site where a permanent casino is being built.
This can be a sweet spot on the NFL wagering calendar, post-draft and pre-training camp, that can provide value. Select experts who have supplied profits in this space have been tapped for their insights.
The Illinois Gaming Board blamed Bally’s for allowing D&P Construction to be used as a garbage hauler at the River Westwork site without permission. D&P has faced past accusations of having mob ties.
Chuck Williams is dedicated to handicapping horses, but he won’t wager on teams or players: ''Human beings are irrational.’'
D&P Construction provides dumpsters for the Bally’s work site, the Sun-Times discovered. Two decades ago, the company’s role in the construction of a proposed Rosemont casino helped torpedo the project over concerns of mob influence.
Bally’s reopened its casino IPO last week to all investors “with a preference for residents of Chicago and other parts of Illinois,” not just those from minority backgrounds — a stipulation that spurred federal lawsuits.