Chicago VGT, Verified: State Approvals Hold at 65, City Licenses Still Zero
Key Takeaways for Gaming Operators and Advisors
We pulled the Illinois Gaming Board’s own licensee and applicant data directly today (igbapps.illinois.gov/Videolistssrc.aspx, filtered to City = CHICAGO) rather than relying on secondhand news counts.
65 Chicago locations hold state approval, identical to yesterday. No new state licenses landed in the last 24 hours.
286 applications are pending, up from 284 yesterday: 284 Establishment, 1 Veterans Establishment, 1 Truck Stop Establishment. That’s normal daily intake, not a meaningful shift.
The city still hasn’t issued a single local license, so zero terminals are operating, despite all the state-level movement.
Bally’s confirmed September 23 that construction on its $1.7 billion casino continues, with roughly 1,000 workers on site daily, and it’s holding its early-2027 opening target while still reassessing about 12% of planned amenities over its Host Community Agreement dispute with the city.
Today’s Chicago update is short on purpose: nothing material changed, and we can say that with confidence because we checked the primary source ourselves rather than trusting a news summary. Pulling directly from the Illinois Gaming Board’s own Licensed and Pending Applicant CSV files, filtered to City = CHICAGO, gives 65 Chicago establishment licenses, the same count as yesterday, meaning zero new state approvals landed overnight, against 286 pending applications (284 Establishment, 1 Veterans Establishment, 1 Truck Stop Establishment), up two from yesterday’s 284. Two more applications joining the queue in a day is ordinary intake, not a signal of anything accelerating or stalling.
The bottleneck hasn’t moved either. The city itself still has not issued a single local license, so despite 65 state-approved locations sitting ready, zero terminals are actually running anywhere in Chicago. That gap between state approval and city licensing remains the single fact that matters most for any operator or location holder waiting on this market: being state-approved is necessary but nowhere close to sufficient right now.
On the casino side, Bally’s confirmed September 23 that construction continues on its $1.7 billion River West resort, with about 1,000 skilled workers on site daily, countering earlier reports that work had stopped. The company reiterated its early-2027 opening target, an event center, 100 hotel rooms, and required dining facilities at launch, while it keeps roughly 12% of planned amenities (additional hotel rooms, entertainment offerings) under review amid its dispute with the city over whether VGT authorization breaches its Host Community Agreement’s ban on new forms of gambling. Bally’s presented its revised construction plans and phased approach to the City Council’s License Committee at the September 9 hearing; there’s no new City Council or Illinois Gaming Board action to report beyond that today.
For clients with locations in the state queue: keep your approval current and don’t assume a licensing announcement is imminent just because the state-side numbers keep growing. The growth is in the pending column, not the licensed-and-operating one, and the city’s licensing freeze is the variable to watch, not the state’s processing pace.
Want the full scenario breakdown, where this goes next and our odds through mid-2027? See our Chicago VGT outlook from September 24 on the Monte Cristo Gaming blog. Want a read on your specific location? Get in touch.
