[TR Devlin]

How big would a Chicago casino be?

The legislation enacted just over a year ago approved a Chicago casino with up to 4,000 gambling positions (slots or table seats). By comparison, Rivers in Rosemont, which I believe is currently the largest in Illinois, has 1,200 gambling positions. So the Chicago casino would be more than three times the size of Rivers.

Who would be the targeted customers?

Out-of-town people visiting Chicago; tourists, people here on business or for a convention, suburbanites spending a weekend in the city, etc. Most of these people are staying in downtown hotels and are not interested in going to Rivers in Rosemont or the Horseshoe in Whiting.

What’s the best location?

If you want to appeal to out-of-towners staying in a downtown hotel, the most important factors in deciding where to put a casino are

1. number of hotel rooms within a quarter mile, and
2. number of hotel rooms within a half mile.

And for a casino three times the size of Rivers, you probably need a full city block. Based on eyeballing Google maps, I’d say five floors of a full block in River North or eight floors in the Thompson Center would be about right for the gaming floors.

Problem with a very large casino near McCormick Place

Lots of people have said the casino should be near McCormick Place or even south of the Stevenson. It seems to me this creates a feast or famine situation. The casino does well when a large convention is in town but struggles in the rest (i.e., majority) of the year.