Harrah’s Joliet & Metropolis, the Casino Queen in East St. The Des Plaines casino has applied to increase its number of gambling positions from 1,200 to 2,000 - the maximum allowed by the expansion bill - in a bid to maintain revenue and offset the draw of new casinos. Rivers brought in $440 million in adjusted gross receipts during fiscal 2019, more than double the $175 million of its nearest competitor, Harrah’s Joliet.
“The new casinos are going to do more to take business from existing casinos than they are to grow the market as a whole.”
“If you put casinos in Rockford and Waukegan, there will be casino patrons who previously went to casinos in the Chicago area that will now be staying closer to home,” Fantini said. Adding six new casinos will likely hurt the existing ones, according to gambling industry consultant Frank Fantini.
