Illinois
Southern Illinois casino opens
Gov. JB Pritzker joined hundreds of people from across southern Illinois Aug. 25 to celebrate the opening of the state’s 14th casino on a rural estate just outside of Carterville, near Carbondale.
The Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort is the fourth casino to open in recent years that was authorized by a 2019 gambling expansion law that was a centerpiece of Pritzker’s first term. It features 650 slot machines and table games, a hotel, restaurants, a full-service spa and 1,200-seat event center. It is expected to employ about 300 people.
“Hospitality, jobs, economic development – that is what today’s announcement represents,” Pritzker said. “When I proposed that we pass a casino gaming bill a few years ago, this is what I had envisioned.”
The 2019 law amending the Illinois Gambling Act authorized six new casinos, including the one in Carterville, four “racinos” – combination horse racetracks and casinos – online and retail sports betting and expanded video gambling.
Proceeds from the gambling expansion were earmarked, in part, to provide funding for Rebuild Illinois, the state’s multiyear capital improvement program to repair and build new roads, bridges and government buildings across the state. The transportation-related portions of the capital improvement program are also supported by increases in the motor fuel tax and licensing fees.
Each casino is required to contribute one-time fees within 30 days of opening to the Rebuild Illinois fund. For Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort, that amounts to $25.3 million, according to the Illinois Gaming Board. Pritzker said the state has already committed Rebuild Illinois funding to numerous projects throughout the southern Illinois region, such as for new buildings at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and John A. Logan College in Carterville.
The $147 million project in southern Illinois has been in the making for years, an effort spurred by Cynde Bunch and her late husband, David, who opened an upscale restaurant and general store by the same name in 2008 on land that had been in Cynde’s family for generations. Elite Casino Resorts LLC is the majority owner and operator of the casino and resort, although Cynde is a partial owner as well.
The ribbon-cutting follows the openings of the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford in November 2021 and the American Place Casino in Waukegan in February 2022, both in upstate Illinois, as well as the Golden Nugget in central Illinois’ Danville in June. The Rockford and Waukegan casinos opened in temporary facilities.
The state’s land-based casinos are already attracting visitors. Last month, just shy of 150,000 people visited the three casinos, representing 15.6 percent of all visitors to the state’s 13 casinos, according to data from the Illinois Gaming Board.
These casino visitors bring in millions of dollars to the state and to local governments each month. In July, casinos allocated $38.3 million for taxes on admissions and gambling – with $30.7 million set aside for the state and $7.6 million for local governments.
The state portion of this money is separate from Rebuild Illinois infrastructure spending and pays for costs at the gaming board, with any excesses being used for educational spending.
There are two more land-based casinos set to open in the coming years. Perhaps the most high-profile casino is the $1.7 billion Bally’s development in Chicago’s River West neighborhood. The Rhode Island-based company operates more than a dozen other casinos around the country, including a riverboat casino in the Quad Cities.
Ahead of the resort’s opening, Bally’s is set to open a temporary operation in the Medinah Temple in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. The state’s gaming board has preliminarily deemed it suitable and is expected to conduct inspections in the first week of September, meaning the temporary casino could be open as early as the following week.
The sixth casino is slated to open in 2025 in the south suburban Chicago villages of Homewood and East Hazel Crest near the Indiana border.
The 2019 gambling law represented the largest expansion of casino operations in Illinois in decades. It authorized the Illinois Gaming Board to issue up to 10 new casino permits, including for the four “racinos,” doubling the number of potential licensees.
However, none of the planned racetrack-casino combos have come to fruition to date. Plans for two of them were abandoned. The operators of tracks in Collinsville in the Metro East and Cicero near Chicago have preliminary approval to add casinos but have yet to do so.
The recent expansion of gambling is the first major change to Illinois’ casino industry since 1990, when the Illinois legislature legalized riverboat gambling. It was only the second state to do so – behind Iowa – though numerous states along the Mississippi River followed suit. The first riverboat casino opened in Alton in 1991. Nine others later opened, spanning from Metropolis at the state’s southern border near Kentucky, to the Chicago suburbs.
That original law only authorized riverboat casinos. For years, they were required to traverse the waterways during gambling sessions. A change in law in 1999 allowed the riverboats to remain docked and most of them eventually stopped setting sail.
Contact Capitol News Illinois at [email protected].
Illinois
In-state official visit coming up is huge for the Illinois football defense
Illinois football wants a nasty front seven on defense, and we are looking to add an in-state talent to help with that cause.
For the 2024 season, the Illini are patching together a defensive line via the transfer portal. We have some young players who came into the program, but they will be fully unleashed on the Big Ten in 2025.
Illinois also has a few solid outside linebackers who will tear apart opposing offenses. I am excited to see what Alec Bryant, Seth Coleman, Gabe Jacas, and Company can do this season.
Depth is an issue for the outside linebacker position moving forward, though. Illinois has seven outside linebackers on the roster right now, and four out of the seven outside linebackers are at least a junior. The Illini need to bolster the position with more incoming young talent.
Landing someone like Cameron Brooks would be great for the Illini. He is a 6-foot-3, 258-pound edge from Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Illinois. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 1053 player in the class of 2025. He is also the No. 78 edge in the country and the No. 30 player coming out of the state of Illinois.
Brooks seems to be narrowing the scope of his recruitment. He has official visits set up to Kansas State and Kansas on January 21 and January 14, respectively. Brooks also has one more visit set up. That visit is to Illinois on June 7. We get his first visit of the summer.
Brooks is a fun football player to watch. Most of the high school athletes are so big and physically overpowering that they are going to look good on tape. Brooks’ hudl tape is different.
What stood out to me is the football IQ. There was a clip early on that the offense was running a screen play, and Brooks was able to sniff it out. If he didn’t realize it was a screen, the play would have gone for a touchdown. Instead, he made the tackle and forced a fumble.
When I look at the Illinois roster, I can see Brooks getting early snaps at Illinois. Coleman is a senior, so he is gone after this season. Bryant, Daniel Brown, and Jacas are all juniors, so 2025 will be their last year at Illinois.
The Illini then have Mason Muragin, Joe Barna, and Pat Farrell on the roster, all of whom are freshmen.
I imagine Brooks comes in and redshirts in 2025. That would make sense because of the roster construct. As a redshirt freshman, who knows what the roster looks like at outside linebacker. There are only three players on the roster who would be on the team in 2026, and those players haven’t proved anything.
I like Brooks’ game. This kid could be pretty good at the next level. Honestly, I am surprised he isn’t more highly touted. I think he has a ton of potential.
Illinois
Penn State Baseball To Face Illinois In Big Ten Tournament
Enter a search term for instant results
Enter a search term for instant results
Penn State baseball’s season isn’t over yet, folks.
After sweeping Maryland on the road this weekend, the Nittany Lions clinched the No. 8 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. They will face No. 1-seed Illinois at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21, at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
If Penn State wins, it’ll face the winner of No. 4 Michigan and No. 5 Iowa at 7 p.m. on Thursday. If it loses, it’ll play the loser of that game at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
The 2024 edition of the conference marks the program’s first trip to the Big Ten Tournament since 2022. The Nittany Lions upset the Hawkeyes in the first round but were eliminated by Rutgers in the second.
Penn State went 26-23 and 12-12 in the Big Ten under first-year head coach Mike Gambino.
Please choose an option below.
OR
About the Author
Illinois
AI Predicts Tornadoes & Derechos for Missouri & Illinois Tuesday
Let’s hope the robots are wrong. Artificial intelligence programs from universities are predicting tornadoes and derechos for Missouri and Illinois Tuesday. Some forecasters do agree.
It would be a good idea to pay attention to severe weather possibilities across most of Missouri and Illinois on Tuesday, May 21. Weather on the Go on YouTube shared official graphics from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center which show both Missouri and Illinois in the danger zone for possibly severe storms Tuesday.
Here’s what the artificial intelligence routines from Colorado State University show for that same time period Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday evening.
This is the expectation for where lightning will be the most intense Tuesday. Again, Missouri and Illinois are the main targets.
The National Weather Service out of Springfield, Missouri is now also talking about increased confidence of explosive thunderstorm development Tuesday in Missouri.
As I’ve said before, this is not a forecast, but just a warning to pay attention to how the weather in Missouri and Illinois develop on Tuesday. Be prepared that warnings may be issued and be prepared to act to keep you and your family safe if the weather becomes dangerous like the artificial intelligence routines are expecting.
10 Missouri Towns Most Likely to Get Hit by a Tornado
Gallery Credit: Canva
-
Finance1 week ago
Spring Finance Forum 2024: CRE Financiers Eye Signs of Recovery
-
World1 week ago
India Lok Sabha election 2024 Phase 4: Who votes and what’s at stake?
-
Politics1 week ago
Biden’s decision to pull Israel weapons shipment kept quiet until after Holocaust remembrance address: report
-
News1 week ago
The Major Supreme Court Cases of 2024
-
Politics1 week ago
Tales from the trail: The blue states Trump eyes to turn red in November
-
World1 week ago
Borrell: Spain, Ireland and others could recognise Palestine on 21 May
-
Politics1 week ago
Fox News Politics: No calm after the Stormy
-
World1 week ago
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy fires head of state guard over assassination plot