Bally’s halts non-casino construction at Chicago resort amid VGT dispute

Bally's Corp. has paused work on the parts of its Chicago resort that are not casino-related. The trigger was a city decision allowing video gaming terminals (VGTs) in restaurants, truck stops and veterans' halls. In the operator's view, those terminals violate its Host Community Agreement (HCA), which it says gives the casino sole rights to run slot-style gaming inside city limits. According to the company, the dispute has not been settled so far.

Around mid-August, the top six floors of the unfinished hotel tower were vandalized with graffiti, which remained visible more than two months later. The markings were reportedly done by SOPO, a Chicago-based graffiti artist known for rope-assisted tags on high-rises, accompanied by two other artists whose tags read NOMS and Neme. Bally's has not yet tried to remove the graffiti on the tower's concrete core.

Bally's continues to lobby city lawmakers to reverse the VGT permissions, and has engaged former Mayor Lori Lightfoot's law firm, Fahner Rosenberg, to help sway the Chicago City Council. Last month, the company made its annual $4m community impact payment to the city, which it describes as upholding its end of the HCA.