Gaming regulators wittle down casino bids
Calumet City, Lynwood out of casino license competition
State gaming regulators voted Wednesday to eliminate casino bids from Calumet City and Lynwood from consideration, with two other applications still in contention.
The Illinois Gaming Board voted 4-0 to reject bids by Southland Live, which proposed using a portion of the River Oaks shopping center in Calumet City, and from the Ho-Chunk Nation to develop land the tribe owns in Lynwood.
The board’s action leaves proposals in Homewood/East Hazel Crest and Matteson as the two remaining contenders for a south suburban casino license.
Homewood and East Hazel Crest are partnering with Wind Creek Hospitality for a 64,000-squarefoot casino on a 24-acre site southwest off the interchange of Interstate 80 and Halsted Street. The $300 million initial phase would include an entertainment center and 21-story hotel, with a rooftop balcony offering views of Chicago’s skyline, according to Wind Creek.
Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld said he is happy with the board’s decision and believes the site that sits partly in his village and neighboring East Hazel Crest will draw traffic from I-80 and stanch the flow of gambling dollars going to casinos in northwest Indiana.
“This development promises to be the best in and for the entire Southland region,” Jay Dorris, president and chief executive of Wind Creek, said in a statement.
Wind Creek is a subsidiary of PCI Gaming Authority Inc., which manages 10 casinos and other gambling properties on behalf of the Alabama-based Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
Matteson’s partners include Oklahoma’s Choctaw Nation, with plans for a casino on the former Lincoln Mall property, southeast of U.S. 30 and Cicero Avenue. The first phase would be a 123,000-square-foot casino, with a 200-room hotel and convention center to built later, representatives said.
“We are excited to continue in the selection process and look forward to advocating our wonderful town as the best location for the Southland casino,” Matteson Mayor Sheila Chalmers-Currin said in a statement.
Chalmers-Currin said she believed the site itself and support from the community were factors in Matteson making the cut.
“We have buy-in from the community, a buy-in from other elected officials,” she said.
The former mall site, controlled by the village, is “shovel ready and we are ready to go on day one,” she said.
Matteson proposes opening a temporary casino in meeting space attached to the nearby Holiday Inn, southeast of Interstate 57 and U.S. 30, within six months should the village be approved. It would be 18 months before a permanent casino is built, according to project representatives.
All four applicants were given a chance to make their pitch last week and respond to questions. The gaming board put off a decision last week to narrow the field, and took Wednesday’s vote after deliberating in closed session.
Board Chairman Charles Schmadeke said narrowing the list was “not an easy task,” and for him the decision rested in part on the commitments applicants were making to the communities they planned to locate in, as well as the level of community support for a casino.
Although Schmadeke did not address it directly, Lynwood’s new mayor, Jada Curry, elected in April, has publicly opposed plans for a casino in her community.
Thaddeus Jones, Calumet City’s mayor, was magnanimous in not making the gaming board’s cut.
“This particular gaming license will be a huge victory for all of southern Cook County,” he said in a statement. “We send well wishes to both the village of Matteson and Homewood.”
Timothy Hughes, project manager and investor in the Calumet City development, said that Southland Live representatives are disappointed. Plans for a temporary casino, if Southland Live won the license, would have had an immediate benefit in “revitalizing the economic engine of Calumet City,” referring to River Oaks, he said.
Jones, elected this spring, had envisioned a casino as a magnet that would attract other development and reverse the fortunes of the struggling River Oaks center, southeast of Torrence Avenue and 159th Street, just east of Interstate 80⁄94.
Speaking in August with the Daily Southtown about his goals for rejuvenating the city’s economy, Jones, sworn in as the city’s first Black mayor in May, said his plans for the shopping center did not hinge on Calumet City winning the casino race.
“We can’t pin all our hopes on the casino,” Jones said.
However, if the city had come out on top he had hoped other attractions, such as an indoor sports dome, could be built on the shopping center property to get visitors to stay more than the few hours they might spend at the gambling center.
Jones said his plans for River Oaks will continue unabated.
In Lynwood, the Ho-Chunk Nation proposed a casino and hotel development on land it owns just east of Illinois 394 and north of the highway’s interchange with Glenwood-Dyer Road.
The Ho-Chunk own more than 120 acres and operate a sports and entertainment center on the property, which would have been retrofitted to house a temporary casino. The Ho-Chunk Nation’s gaming subsidiary operates six casinos in Wisconsin.
Curry told Daily Southtown columnist Francine Knowles this week that she hasn’t spoken to anyone from the tribe or part of the tribe’s leadership team about the casino proposal and her opposition to it, she said.
However, someone who said he was a lobbyist for Ho-Chunk Nation contacted her and she shared her position with him, Curry said.
In 2019, the Lynwood Village Board adopted a resolution supporting the Ho-Chunk Nation proposal. Curry, who was a trustee at that time, voted against the resolution.
The Illinois General Assembly approved legislation in May 2019 expanding the number of casino licenses throughout the state, including one for the south suburbs and one for Chicago.
Gambling revenue from the south suburban site will benefit dozens of communities. Under the legislation, the host community will keep 2% of adjusted gross receipts, or money wagered after winning bets are paid, while 3% will be divvied up among another 42 towns.
South suburban communities that would benefit from the revenue sharing language of the legislation include Dixmoor, Dolton, Phoenix and Robbins.
The gaming board expects to make a decision by early January as to which of the two remaining applicants will receive the license.