A thousand Chicagoans now own slices of Bally’s future casino in River West.
The Rhode Island-based gambling corporation announced late Thursday that its initial public offering of roughly $250 million in Chicago casino shares is closed and registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nearly 1,800 investors picked up shares ranging from $250 to $25,000, including 1,573 “Illinois based shareholders” with 1,007 from Chicago.
The company did not further describe its pool of local investors, which initially was supposed to be limited to women and people of color when Bally’s first announced the IPO last winter, under terms of the host community agreement it signed to land the coveted casino license from former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Those terms prompted lawsuits and a months-long stall before the SEC under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has squashed numerous diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Bally’s expanded the offering in April to people from all backgrounds “with a preference for residents of Chicago and other parts of Illinois.” In June, Bally’s settled a federal lawsuit brought by a conservative activist group on behalf of white men who previously were blocked from buying shares.
The SEC registration for the offering went into effect earlier this week. The company called its IPO “the first of what Bally’s Chicago, Inc. intends to be a few rounds of placements.”
“Bally’s delivers on an innovative way to do public-private partnerships,” the company said in a statement.
Bally’s is relying on proceeds of the IPO to help finance construction of its $1.7 billion casino and entertainment complex at 777 W. Chicago Ave., slated to open in September 2026. Company leaders had to line up a $940 million financing deal with a Pennsylvania real estate firm last year to bridge an $800 million funding gap.
Bally’s casino shares “are highly risky and speculative” and “should be considered only by persons who can afford the loss of their entire investment,” the company has cautioned.
It’s a tight timeline for Bally’s to complete its massive permanent facility by next September, as they’re required to do under the gambling expansion law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2019 authorizing a Chicago casino that a generation of Chicago mayors had sought to help fund police and firefighter pensions.
Last year, the company had to remap its site plan when it found out the original design would have damaged city water mains, and later had to pause work after a demolition mishap sent debris into the Chicago River.
And in May, regulators at the Illinois Gaming Board halted construction at the site for two weeks after the Sun-Times revealed a waste hauler once tied to organized crime was working at the site.
Meanwhile, early returns have been disappointing from the temporary casino Bally’s operates at the historic Medinah Temple, 600 N. Wabash Ave. It’s generated $27.4 million in tax revenue for the city over almost two years since opening. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office banked on more than that amount in his first-year budget alone.