A 54-year-old patron of Rivers Casino in Des Plaines arrived on an unseasonably warm early morning in January 2023 only to be greeted by someone sticking a gun in his face in the parking lot.
The victim was patted down, robbed and driven across the street in his own Prius to a Rosemont parking garage and left there — as the robber, with at least one alleged accomplice, took off, according to police records.
The offenders were soon arrested, and the victim wasn’t physically harmed in the robbery — one of several at the northwest suburban gambling destination that year, according to a Chicago Sun-Times examination that found that while violent crime isn’t terribly common at Chicago area casinos, thefts, fights and other nuisance crime are.
Rivers — the state’s busiest and most profitable casino, located in the shadows of O’Hare Airport — had the most reported crime of the eight casinos in Chicago and the suburbs, with more than 1,500 crimes logged from 2020 to early this year out of roughly 3,800 reported at those casinos by the Illinois Gaming Board, according to records from the government agency.
Those cases are a tiny fraction of the 31.3 million trips through casino turnstiles during that time, including about 13 million visits to Rivers.
The most frequent violation at the Des Plaines casino: gambling or trying to gamble after a visitor was banned from doing so through what’s called the “self-exclusion” program in which would-be patrons sign up to be barred from gaming sites because they’re “problem gamblers.”
Showing up once banned amounts to a crime along the lines of trespassing, though not everybody caught is necessarily cited.
The gaming board — which regulates gambling statewide — recorded roughly 400 “self-exclusion” incidents at Rivers from Jan. 1, 2020, through this March, with at least 18 so far in 2025.
One of those incidents occurred March 30 involving a woman who was cited by police with criminal trespass to property after “she came to Valet Boarding attempting to locate her lost wallet,” according to gaming board records. She was “informed she was still banned from Illinois casinos and was in violation of her self-exclusion status” and “escorted off property.”
Elgin’s Grand Victoria Casino had just over 100 self-exclusion incidents over the same period, which was the next highest tally in that category, records show.
Most incidents of cheating — Rivers Casino
Rivers also led in the number of incidents involving cheating — with 106 recorded since 2020, records show.
This past March, a woman was kicked out of Rivers after being spotted moving her chips while playing Blackjack, records show.
“Surveillance confirmed and notified” the gambler that she was “observed moving her wager to the 21+3 bonus after the cards were displayed.”
The woman “said it was a misunderstanding . . . cashed out her remaining chips and exited.”
Bally’s Casino, which opened its temporary site at the Medinah Temple in River North in September 2023, has recorded at least 34 cheating incidents since then, records show.
In one instance, on Feb. 10, a man placed a $50 bet at a Blackjack table and ended up with a “jack of hearts and 9 of hearts,” records show. He “then added $75” as a side bet “after the dealer revealed an ace of hearts,” and the patron “was paid a total of $375.”
The dealer told a supervisor the patron may have adjusted their bet later than allowed and requested a surveillance review, records show.
“The patron immediately left the table . . . cashed out and departed Bally’s. Surveillance verified that the patron past posted,” according to the records. “The patron was not carded upon entry to Bally’s and was unable to be identified.”
There were around 200 cheating incidents in total at the eight local casinos since 2020, records show.
That includes nine at the Wind Creek Chicago Southland casino that opened in November in East Hazel Crest and 10 at the American Place Casino that opened its temporary complex in Waukegan in 2023.
The Waukegan site also reported 22 incidents in which counterfeit bills were used, while Rivers had 36 and Hollywood Casino Joliet had 40.
Bally’s had 10 counterfeiting incidents, including one Dec. 12 in which a patron “provided a fraudulent $100 bill (serial number LB12369599T) at the main cage,” records show.
The customer reported receiving “the bill at the CVS Pharmacy across the street,” and it “was confiscated” by casino security and the patron “left without incident.”
The bill “had Chinese markings on the front and back and had a waxy feel with none of the usual security features.”
A gaming board spokeswoman says in such instances, a gaming board agent “determines who passed the bill or bills, confiscates the bill and determines whether an arrest is warranted.”
The gaming board “works with local law enforcement and/or the Secret Service.”
Illinois Gaming Board agent at each casino
Each casino has a gaming board agent on site, and that person can “conduct investigations, may arrest individuals, but they typically work in conjunction with the local law enforcement jurisdiction. The criminal activity may begin with IGB agents however is then turned over to local authorities.”
Local police are not required to notify the gaming board of all crime at casinos, so the gaming board records on crime are incomplete, the Sun-Times found. Not all incidents lead to an arrest or criminal charges.
Crime was top of mind for opponents of Bally’s before it opened at 600 N. Wabash Ave. At least 275 crimes have been logged by state regulators since then.
Chicago police were called to Bally’s at least 25 times over the first three months of this year, mostly for trespassers and simple altercations among people who were apparently intoxicated, CPD records show.
But a large fight on the second floor of the casino prompted security to flag down officers patrolling River North early Feb. 3.
Four assailants surrounded a 35-year-old man and took his two iPhones, his $40,000 Audemars Piguet watch and chain and pendant worth $14,000, according to a police report.
Security video showed the attackers “ganging up on [the victim] and striking him multiple times with closed fists and kicking him numerous times while he was on the ground,” the report says — but they were gone by the time officers got there, and had possibly used fake IDs to get into the casino.
Like the other casinos, Bally’s crime reports were overwhelmingly nonviolent aside from four domestic batteries, nine simple batteries and a case of unlawful use of a weapon.
Bally’s Chicago general manager Travis Hankins said the casino’s “commitment to safety and security for our guests and employees alike is unwavering. … We will proactively identify and mitigate risks, continuously improve our safety and security practices, and provide a safe and secure environment for all.”
A Rivers spokesman echoed that, saying “the safety and security of our guests, employees and the community is our top priority and even a single incident is one too many. That being said, Rivers Casino Des Plaines is the most visited of all the state’s casino properties.”
Many “of the incidents were gaming-related and uncovered through our proactive surveillance and detection initiatives. From the data you shared and our own analysis, a public safety concern took place with less than 0.01% of admissions to our property. This track record is evidence of our commitment to public safety.”
A 2022 analysis from Federal Reserve Bank economist Adam Scavette, who looked at the impacts of expanded gambling in the U.S., said, “there is little evidence that opening a casino will increase crime in a community beyond that of any other tourist attraction.”
The report added, “As casinos and other forms of legalized gambling have proliferated throughout the U.S. over the past 30 years, both the potential upside for the regional economy and the negative community consequences have likely diminished.”
In terms of total reported crime to Illinois gaming regulators, after Rivers, the site with the most crimes was the Hollywood Casino Joliet, with more than 500 since 2020. The far southwest suburban casino topped all others in the Chicago area with 207 reported thefts.
The Sun-Times also found:
- Joliet’s other casino, Harrah’s, recorded the most domestic violence reports, 17 since 2020, including eight in 2024, records show. More than 50 were reported between the eight Chicago area casinos in the same period.
- All eight casinos reported incidents involving patrons gaining or trying to gain entry when they were underage or otherwise brandishing false identification, records show. “Unless an employee of the casino, no one under the age of 21 is permitted on the gaming floor,” according to the gaming board spokeswoman.
- The region’s newer casinos wasted no time in recording crimes, with Wind Creek Chicago Southland casino reporting a banned gambler on Nov. 11, the same day the facility opened to the public. American Place Casino, which opened Feb. 17, 2023, recorded a “self-exclusion” violator two days later, records show.
- Gaming board records show adults continue to leave children in cars in casino parking lots while they’re gambling inside, a recurring problem over the years. Records show 11 incidents since 2020, though media reports indicate there were other instances that weren’t recorded by the gaming board.
Gaming board administrator Marcus Fruchter said his agency is “committed to safe, secure and compliant casino gambling operations.”
Agency staff members “work closely with our licensed casino operators, and coordinate with local law enforcement in host communities, on crime prevention efforts and to maintain casino safety and security,” Fruchter said. “Among other measures, the IGB adopted Casino Rule 560 in 2023 to require all 17 Illinois casinos to deploy weapons detection systems at patron entrances.”
While the gaming board doesn’t regulate casinos in northwest Indiana, published accounts show they’re not immune from crime. A patron at the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana in Gary was robbed of his winnings at gunpoint in the parking lot in 2023, according to the Post-Tribune.