Chicago Mayoral Candidate Pushes For New Casino In The City

Chicago is struggling financially and the city needs to find an additional $1 billion in funding if it is going to successfully fund public pensions going forward. That’s a lot of money for Chicago to come up with and a lot of this responsibility will fall on the shoulders of the next Mayor.

Gery Chico who is running for Mayor met with his supporters and the general public at the City Club of Chicago and outlined some of his plans for the city, should he be voted in as the next Mayor.

He directly addressed the financial woes of the city and put forward a few solutions on how Chicago can go about raising the $1 billion that it needs to.

One solution is to move forward with a proposed casino in the city that has been in discussions since 2011. The proposed casino continues to be up in the air and Chico is confident that if gets elected as Mayor, he will get the ball moving. His estimates suggest that the new casino could generate as much as $300 million per year.

City Club of Chicago

The 62 year old attorney has run for Mayor in the past but has not come up successful. This time around he is not holding back on his promises and what he will bring to the table. One big talking point what his views on legalizing marijuana in Chicago as his estimates suggest that the industry could generate anywhere between $350 to $700 million per annum and a significant portion of that revenue would be collected by Chicago via taxes.

Can Chico Deliver On New Casino Approval?

Talks on expanding the gambling bill in the state and getting a new casino approved in Chicago have done the rounds in the past and was most recently struck down by an Illinois House committee in May 2018.

Chico remains confident that he can push forward with these plans but that is an optimistic view to say the least. For one, Chico is one of the 14 candidates running for Mayor and should he be voted in, he will have to make good on his promises.

The promise to try and get a new casino up and running in Chicago is difficult as the Illinois Casino Gaming Association is concerned over gaming market saturation and is not very keen in approving a new Chicago casino.