Beverly, Lake View, Mount Greenwood and Printers Row are at the front of the line for the city’s first state-sanctioned slot machines outside of Bally’s Chicago Casino.
Six bars and restaurants in those neighborhoods have gotten the green light from Illinois regulators to install video gambling machines, but they still need city officials to sign off before letting residents take a spin.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is making a late push to block the machines from operation, which his finance team has warned could undercut business at the permanent Bally’s gambling mecca that is finally slated to open next year in the city’s River West neighborhood.
But after more than a decade of keeping the machines out of the city while they’ve exploded across the suburbs, a recalcitrant City Council that authorized video gambling over Johnson’s objection last fall could still ensure that Bally’s isn’t the only game in town.
At least 279 bars, restaurants, gas stations and a veterans’ hall in Chicago want a piece of the action, with state applications pending to install slots.
And that’s only a tenth of the establishments that could end up lighting up slots if the city indeed goes all in on video gambling. About 3,300 are eligible to apply, an estimated 80% of which are expected to seek slots — which could eventually mean more than 2,600 places with machines sucking up gamblers’ cash.
The first batch of hopeful houses of chance span the city, but are mostly clustered on the North Side, where 146 businesses want to add gambling to the menu, including the Cubby Bear, Parrots Bar & Grill and both Emporium locations.
Reggie’s Bar & Grill and the Cove Lounge are among 91 South Side businesses with applications pending, along with another 37 closer to downtown, including Miller’s Pub.
Just five West Side businesses had put in applications, which can take months to be processed by the state.
Already gaming board-approved on the Far South Side are Cork and Kerry, Lawlor’s Bar, Hippo’s and Bar 106.
North Side brunch spot Eggsperience has gotten the green light as well, along with the South Loop’s Half Sour.
They would join the 8,933 locations across Illinois with more than 49,000 slots that comprise “the largest regulated video gaming network of its kind in the world,” according to the Illinois Gaming Board. That’s the perennially understaffed state agency tasked with vetting, licensing and policing a sprawling gambling landscape that also includes 17 casinos and one of the largest sports betting markets in America.
Slots have grown ubiquitous across more than 1,100 Illinois municipalities that have embraced them as tax revenue generators since the state industry went live in 2012. The council’s vote last year to lift Chicago’s ban left just 83 towns in the state that prohibit video gambling.
Governments have become increasingly reliant on the machines, which overtook casinos in terms of tax revenue generation in 2017 and last year surpassed the Illinois Lottery with a staggering $871 million cut for the state.
Gamblers lost more than $3 billion at the machines statewide in 2025, with the state taking about 30% off the top for capital projects and local governments of host towns getting about 5%.
Establishments split the rest with terminal operators who provide the slots, a financial boon that many Chicago businesses have longed for while watching gamblers flock to suburban joints just outside city limits.
Bars and restaurants are limited to six slots, with maximum bets of $4 for payouts of up to $1,199 or progressive jackpots of up to $10,000. The lucrative machines have attracted increasing numbers of burglars over the past few years, the Sun-Times has reported.
Displeased with the entire proposition is Bally’s, which was promised it wouldn’t have to compete with video gambling machines under the host community agreement it signed with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office, after she handed them the coveted casino license in 2023.
Johnson’s office and Bally’s have warned that a saturated city gambling market could wipe out over a thousand jobs, wipe out the company’s yearly lump-sum $4 million payment to the city as well as some $74 million in annual city tax revenue down the line.
Bally’s $1.7 billion casino complex is expected to open at 777 W. Chicago Ave. in the first quarter of 2027 after years of delays and complications. The company got approval last month from the Illinois General Assembly to extend their temporary operation at the historic Medinah Temple, which has fallen far short of initial revenue projections since opening in September 2023.
The next round of video gambling licensees is expected to be announced at the gaming board’s next public meeting Aug. 20.