Image credit: Source: Bally's Corporation public statements and city filings. Never imply stock depicts the actual event.
Bally's Corporation notified the Chicago Community Builders Collective on Saturday, 9 August, that it is pausing construction on everything at its River West casino site except the casino floor itself, escalating a fight with the city over video gaming terminals. The halt covers the 500-room hotel tower, which has already topped out at 34 storeys, plus a planned events center, food hall and restaurants. As many as 1,500 union tradespeople are affected.
The $1.7 billion project's casino portion stays on schedule for an early 2027 opening, Bally's said. Only the non-gaming buildout is on hold.
At issue is a June 2022 Host Community Agreement that Bally's reads as a promise the city would not permit other casino-style gambling within Chicago limits. The City Council approved video gaming terminals in bars, restaurants and truck stops in fall 2025 and built the expected revenue into the 2026 budget. Bally's argues that expansion breaches the deal it signed to win the casino license in the first place.
The Illinois Gaming Board had 268 VGT license applications pending as of July, with none yet approved, so the terminals Bally's objects to are not yet live anywhere in the city. That has not stopped Bally's from raising the financial stakes. The company is weighing whether to withhold an annual $4 million payment owed to Chicago this September, according to the Chicago Tribune, on top of freezing the construction contracts.
"This creates uncertainty that could be harmful for Bally's Chicago prospects," the company said in a statement, without naming a dollar figure for the delay itself. Neither Mayor Brandon Johnson's office nor the City Council has issued a public response to the construction freeze.
The dispute lands as Bally's group is mid-restructuring elsewhere, having absorbed tax pressure across its US book same as every operator this earnings season. Chicago is one of the largest single land-based bets the company has made, and a prolonged standoff over gaming-license exclusivity is a preview of the kind of state and municipal friction other operators expanding into new US markets should expect once a casino deal is signed, not before.
What happens next depends on whether Chicago moves to approve any of the pending VGT licenses. Bally's has given no date for resuming construction, and the casino's early-2027 opening timeline assumes the freeze does not last through the winter building season.