The decision to lift the Chicago ban on video gambling terminals has divided the City Council and exacerbated tensions between alderpersons and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
On Thursday, a new and potentially broader front opened in the ongoing battle.
Johnson asked the Council’s Committee on Workforce Development to meet Monday to consider direct introduction of an ordinance that would “authorize one or more agreements with the casino developer to enhance casino workforce capability to disallow video gaming terminals.”
“There’s some aldermen who are concerned about what this would mean for Bally’s operations in the city of Chicago, and their commitments to the city,” Workforce Development Chair Mike Rodriguez (22nd) told the Sun-Times. “This ordinance, if passed as it is,” would repeal video gambling citywide and “start a conversation about revenue.”
Pressed on whether Johnson has the votes for a citywide repeal, Rodriguez said, “They’re whipping it,” the legislative term for attempting to round up the votes.
“There’ll be discussions over the weekend and on Monday in the committee, and we’ll see where folks are at. I hear smart people … and friends in labor, saying that Bally’s may balk on their millions that’s guaranteed to the city. That’s why we’re gonna have a conversation,” he said.
The $16.6 billion, 2026 budget approved by a City Council majority lifted the Chicago ban on video gambling and assumed Chicago would generate $6.8 million by licensing newly legalized video gambling terminals across the city.
That’s based on the assumption that 80% of the 3,300 eligible establishments with off-premise liquor licenses will apply, but also that the Illinois Gaming Board would take six to eight months to grant those licenses.
Johnson has raised strong objections to legalizing video gambling, in part because he believes it would violate the city’s host agreement with Bally’s, the gaming giant operating a temporary casino at Medinah Temple while building a permanent casino-entertainment complex in River West.
The mayor’s City Council allies have either banned or attempted to ban video gambling terminals in their individual wards while buying time for Johnson to find the votes to repeal the ordinance citywide.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), Council champion for lifting the Chicago ban, has been determined to maximize revenue from video gambling terminals and eliminate competition for them, and has been trying to ban sweepstakes machines over Johnson’s objections.
On Thursday, Beale accused the mayor of introducing his proposed citywide repeal to the Workforce Development Committee chaired by Johnson ally Rodriguez, when it belongs in the License Committee.
“You can’t pass something in one committee and repeal it in another,” Beale said. “It’s just pathetic the games this administration plays.”
Beale has been warning for months that the mayor was working behind the scenes to round up enough votes to repeal the ordinance authorizing video gambling terminals at restaurants, bars and bowling alleys. He predicted Thursday that the mayor would fall short of the 26 votes needed to reverse a fundamental element of the alternative budget.
“We had 31 aldermen to approve this along with the budget. I would be hard-pressed to believe he can get several aldermen change their position on this in order to try to repeal it. Are these people willing to blow a larger hole in the budget and go down the road with this administration, which has already shown they don’t have the capacity to run this city?”
License Committee Chair Debra Silverstein (50th), who voted with the Council majority on video gambling, is trying to protect her turf.
“Your decision to bypass the committee with clear jurisdiction and instead send this legislation to a committee perceived to be more politically favorable to you is a transparent attempt to avoid scrutiny and deliberation that should accompany any proposal of this magnitude,” Silverstein wrote in a letter to Johnson.
“Unfortunately, this action is consistent with a broader pattern of efforts by your administration to circumvent the legislative powers of the City Council when doing so is politically expedient.”
The mayor’s office had no immediate comment on Silverstein’s letter, or the attempt to repeal video gambling .
Bally’s has warned repeatedly that lifting Chicago’s ban on video gambling would cost the cash-strapped city $74 million in annual revenue and up to 1,050 jobs at its temporary and permanent casinos.
The casino giant has further warned that lifting the long-standing Chicago ban would force the Johnson administration to renegotiate “critical elements” of its host agreement, wipe out a yearly $4 million lump-sum payment from Bally’s and shrink the casino jackpot needed to save police and fire pension funds.
Christopher Jewett, senior vice president for corporate development at Bally’s, said his company supports repealing legalization of video gambling.
“VGTs undermine the Host Community Agreement and undercut its economics and intent,” Jewett said in a statement. “If VGTs go live in Chicago, Bally’s will pursue all available legal remedies, which — alongside the loss of tax revenues — will have a monetary impact to the City that Bally’s conservatively believes is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, far exceeding any potential revenue the City stands to realize from VGTs.”