Too rich for their blood? Two suburbs lay down casino hands — but ten others still in the game

Two players in the high-stakes game for a south suburban casino license have folded, leaving four towns at the table for what they hope is a tax-revenue jackpot.

But in other action, it’s still three of a kind vying for a single casino in north suburban Waukegan, while a trio of developers in Downstate locales each only must pass state regulators’ muster — not any competing bids — to land a winning casino hand.

That’s what was revealed when all the hole cards were turned over on Tuesday.

Casino bidders had to submit lengthy applications to the Illinois Gaming Board by Monday, and a total of 10 developers ended up making that deadline, each complete with a $250,000 fee for a seat at the table under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s massive new gambling expansion.

Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times

Gaming Board officials on Tuesday formally unsealed the competitive bids from applicants for the Waukegan and south suburban casinos, starting the clock on the full year that the agency has to vet applications and award licenses.

Six south suburbs initially threw hats in the ring for the southern Cook County license, but just four ended up submitting applications: Calumet City, Lynwood, Matteson and a joint proposal from Homewood and East Hazel Crest.

The Crestwood village board had approved an unnamed casino developer to advance to the Gaming Board, but Mayor Lou Presta said their investment group backed out “at the last minute,” scared off by the non-refundable, quarter-million-dollar application fee.

Sun-Times file photo

”[The investors] wanted us to come up with the fee, and so in the best interest of the village, I said no,” Presta said. “If we didn’t get the casino, that’s money lost. I don’t think it’s fair, the way the state set it up.”

Instead, Crestwood will support Matteson’s plan in partnership with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, for a $300 million casino complex at Lincoln Highway and Harlem Avenue.

“We think that community could use the money. We’re in good pretty good shape,” Presta said.

Also throwing in with Matteson is Country Club Hills, which opted to support Matteson’s plan instead of teaming up with a New York gaming firm on a separate casino proposal, Mayor James Ford said.

Calumet City partnered with Delaware North Gaming on their Southland Live Casino proposed for the River Oaks shopping center. Lynwood is pushing a Ho-Chunk Nation proposal near the Southland Center sports complex, while Homewood and East Hazel Crest have pitched a site at 175th and Halsted with a subsidiary of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.

Parsing through stacks of documents Tuesday, Gaming Board officials also unsealed the three Waukegan license bidders, all pegged for the site of the Fountain Square mall.

The Lake County city approved three developers, leaving it up to the state to decide from Las Vegas-based Full House Resorts Inc.; Churchill Downs/Rush Street gaming, which already operates Rivers Casino Des Plaines; and Lakeside Casino LLC, which is led by former Grayslake state Sen. Michael Bond.

Submitting Gaming Board applications without any competition were Haven Gaming LLC for a casino in Danville in east-central Illinois; Hard Rock International for one in Rockford and Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort for one in Williamson County in southern Illinois.

State law exempts Gaming Board applications from Illinois’ open records law, but the agency said it would soon publish financial disclosures that the applicants are required to release under the law.

Chicago also was slated for a casino under the new legislation, but that licensing process is stalled while Mayor Lori Lightfoot negotiates with state lawmakers on new taxing terms to make it more viable for potential operators.