"Serious Harm"

A little noticed and serious implication to the Chicago budget:

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision Tuesday to allow the 2026 budget created by the city council to take effect Jan. 1 — he will neither veto the ordinance nor sign it, which has the same effect as signing it — leaves Bally’s with some decisions to make regarding its $2 billion casino currently under construction in River West.

  The $16.6 billion “alternative” budget includes the potential to legalize video gaming terminals (VGTs), which are the biggest source of gaming tax revenue in Illinois by a wide margin. They are currently banned in Chicago via city ordinance, though an ordinance to legalize them passed out of the city council’s Committee on License and Consumer Protection in September.

Conehead whines and cries about the aldermanic budget "overestimating" revenues, but Bally's has NEVER hit its targeted revenues for Chicago - most of which were to be directed to Police nad Fire pensions. But that didn't stop the City from spending the "projected revenues" and driving massive deficits.

Now, Bally's is warning about Virtual Gaming Terminals cutting into their projected revenue streams, the promised 3,000 jobs being cut by a third, and throwing the entire future of the physical casino into serious doubt.

Chicago and Conehead are going to go down in history as the only entities that could LOSE money on a casino.