You can set up a whole room of casino games for a charity event or just get a table or two to host a poker tournament at your corporate event or bachelor party. Casino rental companies have lots of options including card game tables, slot machines, and roulette wheels. In addition, the promised economic windfall may or may not materialize, given intense competition for gambling dollars that only promises to stiffen in the coming years.A casino-themed party is a great choice for all types of events, from birthdays to proms to corporate parties. The mayor has said that a downtown site still could emerge as the casino's home. In this case, the local alderman wants the project, saying it would generate jobs and economic development.Īnnual casino revenues in the Chicago area already stand at nearly $2 billion, making this the nation's third-largest gambling market after Las Vegas and Atlantic City, according to the American Gaming Association.ĭon't place your hopes (or bets) just yet on one of the five sites.Ĭity officials have stressed that the casino won't necessarily wind up at one of the five spots, which they characterized as test sites when Lightfoot announced them in July.

The area around the Harborside site on the Far South Side has the lowest population density of the five contenders and is the closet to northwest Indiana's casinos, including those just over the border in Hammond. Here, too, the local alderman has said, in effect, 'no dice,' calling the possibility of a casino in the historic African American neighborhood of Bronzeville 'appalling and offensive.' The area around another site, the former Michael Reese Hospital, has the lowest crime rate of the five and sits closest to the McCormick Place convention center, widely considered a good spot from which to draw gamblers. But the local alderman has issued a statement against putting the project in her ward. The proposed site at Pershing Road and State Street near Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the White Sox, gets the most car traffic, a potential advantage if city officials and a casino owner opt to build a drive-in, drive-out facility that operates like a shopping mall. Sources: City of Chicago, Tribune reporting

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