Show Us The Money!
Politicians promised there would be tens of millions!
When Bally’s Casino opened September 2023, expectations from owners, lawmakers and Illinoisans were high – nearly $3 million per month was expected to flow into Chicago’s coffers.
But Bally’s is not coming close to meeting the original expectations.
In 2023, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot projected Bally’s temporary location in the River North neighborhood at the Medinah Temple would generate nearly $12.8 million in four months in tax revenue for the city’s police and firefighter pensions. Bally’s came about $9.6 million short, earning only $3.1 million of the expected $12.8 million.
It’s been the same in 2024. At the start of the year, it was expected Bally’s would generate $2.92 million a month in local tax revenue. March 2024 was Bally’s best month of the year, but local tax revenue was only $1.13 million.
Here's a handy chart showing how badly Bally's is underperforming:
Labels: money questions
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
33 Comments:
So who's takin' da SKIM ?
Glad I don’t gamble…
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you to find out skimming is going on in this city, one of the most corrupt cities in America.
Too little, too late. They f-ed around with it far too long, locating it on a democrat-friendly site, making it racially delightful, etc. Now the Bidenomics has eaten away a lot of people's discretionary income - monies that they might have spent at a casino.
Casinos are a bigger draw when they're not in crime-ridden shithole cities where regular citizens can't safely travel to and from those casinos. Stop doing everything possible to increase violent crime and maybe people will actually go to the casino... or any of the places they used to go in this city.
You can't make money when you're clientele are ghetto dwellers who are mostly hanging out.
Maybe we can rally for a government bailout
We must help struggling businesses
Who the f$&k in their right mind would want to gamble in the city? Really? Yeah, let me come to the city, valuables, atm, watch, phone, car if your local - so you can get robbed going to or coming from it? There’s enough slots in dark & seedy but safer places in the burbs. There’s still plenty of casinos hopping in the burbs, Michigan and Indiana. Chicago waited 10-15 years too long. They could’ve hopped on it when people wanted to still come downtown when downtown was still relatively clean, not strewn with homeless drug addicts and mentally ill panhandlers, when tourist sites didn’t include drag racing or flash mobs wilding & shoplifting en masse. They could’ve hopped on it and offered up common sense places like McCormick and not pushed for sites in crime infested neighborhoods where no sane person would want to travel to gamble.
Casinos are outdated. The casinos' core customer base (Baby Boomers) are dying out rapidly. Younger people don't have the disposable income like they did 10 years ago. And if they do gamble its online. Furthermore, AI is installed in the gambling machines to keep payouts and your chances of winning even lower than before. Besides...downtown Chicago and River North looks and feels like Englewood now anyway. Dude Inc. has ruined casinos, multiplex movie theaters and buffet restaurants.
How about taking a course in fiscal management and responsible planning and spending and how to be proactive about how you spend taxpayer funds. Let’s start there and it includes the whole state of Hellonois
Gamblers are cheap. It costs money to get to Chicago, then park. When the whole spend in NWI is about gambling.
Wait until permanent building opens to worse results. No one wants to mingle with gang bangers from the hood. Think I am kidding dare you say o go to the Temple ona Friday or Sat night. The drug money might be the only disposable cash in the city.
Has any projected profit from a program pushed by politicians ever produced the revenue they boasted about? Hardly if ever do these pet projects come close to the numbers touted. The only real revenue generated was the fat envelope passed under the table to a money hungry political hack ala Ed Burke. Politicians gets fat, connected vendors and contractors get fat, political friends and family get fat and last but not least the public, Joe Taxpayer, gets screwed.
Perhaps Ballys can do something about the savage ‘teens’ lurking about the casino’s perimeter? You wants to travel downtown and encounter the demonized kids?
if the casino wants to make more money, they gotta put up one of those signs that says
"link card accepted here"
Anonymous Anonymous said...
You can't make money when you're clientele are ghetto dwellers who are mostly hanging out.
6/13/2024 01:13:00 AM
You can't make money when "you are" clientele are ghetto dwellers who are mostly hanging out.
What does that mean?
These fucking casino everywhere including Vegas all fuck you over with shitty pay tables and odds. I mean wtf, they already have the edge on you but still want to make it harder for you to win.
Skim? More likely Democrat inflation and high taxes are the main cause. Most working people no longer have the money to gamble at a casino, welfare recipients don't have as much due to inflation and a larger percentage of the give away cash is going to the illegals. Even the baby boomers are getting hit hard with inflation.
Democrats have no one to blame but their own corrupt selves.
brandon has a plan to get more gamblers in Chicago,,,,, he will now call you racist if you don't wanna come to Chicago to gamble and get beaten and robbed and shot and killed
Chicago and Illinois are about 15 years too late to the casino game. Casino's are now as numerous as pimples on a 15 year old's face ...and about as pretty too!
Current "Bally" owner-operator is not the original "Bally" casino owner-operator; they only bought the ownership-rights to "Bally" name, not the corporate expertise and management. Lightfoot was either bamboozled, or personally incentivized, to pick Bally, because they weren't the best, the brightest, or the most financially-equipped to do deal. Current Bally company operates 2nd-tier backwoods casinos, no flash Las Vegas experience, and as importantly, no relevant real estate development experience. The mistakes Bally has made on real estate-related issues are epic, causing substantial delays, meanwhile construction and real estate finance market dramatically weakened. Not surprised that Bally can't move forward with its mega casino campus construction. Not surprised that Chicago won't realize its showcase casino ambitions, and expect temporary Medina Temple location to close-down within a year or two, given supersized street-crime problem in immediate River North neighborhood.
Day late dollar short.
Larry Lighthead and Conehead have another failure on their hands again. Gambling is the answer to the pensions and other necessities. The legacy of blunders and mistake continue by Democrats. There will be no changes as failure is in their DNA. There one big success is maintaining a stupid and ignorant voting public.
I laugh. It takes decades to construct highway entrance ramps in "Illinoize". But the new "Indian casino" in East Hazel Crest is nearly done, in less than 2 years.
Fucking crazy!
Downtown is dangerous. No need to go there to feed quarters into a machine or throw some cards. People can do that (and ARE doing that) in better locations. Seriously, this city has fallen so far that a casino is struggling.
Sometimes it’s not the skimming. Casinos are history. On line bookmakers, lottery,etc are taking over. In order to have a casinos make real money you have to have top entertainment, great restaurants and a safe atmosphere outside
Another huge problem in that there is only so much gambling money available. Gamblers can only spend so much so it appears online is taking over. Why go downtown with all the problems
No such thing as a cure-all. I feel sorry for those who bought into that bull. As for city safety, if you keep pulling cops out of their district to go to hot spots, you allow those districts to be the next hot spots. You can't keep robbing Peter to pay Paul. You'll end up constantly chasing your own tail. Citizens are complaining about the lack of available cops in their districts and driving anywhere is now scary. Stats don't make anyone feel safe, it just make Bosses feel better at meetings thinking they had something to do with bs 5% decrease in already too much crime. Oh you didn't have 300 agg assaults this year, you only had 285! Do you feel safer?
if the casino wants to make more money, they gotta put up one of those signs that says
"link card accepted here"
6/13/2024 07:21:00 AM
The link card crowd is already fully on board with going to the Chicago casino. They're actually the reason more regular people won't dare go near the casino.
Casinos , Reefer Stores & Taxable Prostitution gonna save the Pension Ponzi?
$20 pack a smokes, 5 AM Bar Closing & De-Natured Booze all have ways to
make some rich, but you can’t kill the mark before they be busted out.
Chicago pretended the casino would have no competition. Bally's went along with the make-believe statistics. Birds of a feather fail together.
For those of you complaining, what is the solution then? Take whatever we can get from the casino. It is better than nothing at all at this point. It isnt costing us anything to build the casino. Come up with solutions instead of bitchin!
Going to downtown for anything at all sucks. Parking sucks. Traffic sucks. Crime sucks. The place is a hellhole. Take any convenience imaginable and destroy it. Only decent thing about downtown is the view of the lake.
How long has it been since BJ had a "heart attack like event?" Aren't we due for one?
Asking for a friend
I am beginning to feel that the stress is going to get him before he finishes 3 more years. He is soooooo way in over his head.
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