Handicapping the contenders for a Chicago casino

Handicapping the contenders for a Chicago casino

Article brief provided by Chicago Sun-Times
  • David Roeder, Chicago Sun-Times
January 19, 2021 11:13 AM
  • David Roeder, Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago’s business and government leaders have a lot on their plates, but there’s an impertinent pertinent question to ask them.

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What are you going to do about a casino?

It seems like a long-term issue, but the city and state need money fast and sportsbooks are the new frenzy. Planning and construction take time, so it behooves everyone to work on this pronto. The first order of business is picking a site.

Where, oh where, to put this thing, a singular destination that depending on the execution can abet or degrade everything around it? It’s a topic batted around for years before the city got authorization to have a downtown casino. For guidance, it helps to review the answers casino operators and developers gave the city when it issued a “request for information,” basically a call for ideas, last year.