Video gambling machines are one major step closer to being in Chicago’s bars and restaurants after clearing a key hurdle this week as elected officials sent notice to state regulators after Mayor Brandon Johnson took no action.
The state of Illinois began accepting applications Thursday afternoon from businesses that hope to operate the machines. The green light came because City Clerk Anna Valencia notified the Illinois Gaming Board Tuesday that the city had legalized the controversial gambling machines.
Johnson had not sent the notice for weeks in an apparent effort to pressure aldermen to change the legalization plan they approved as a part of the 2026 city budget they passed in December against his will. But his City Council opponents passed a resolution last week that ultimately compelled Valencia to send the official notice that the gaming board accepted.
“We know we need the revenue, and this is a huge revenue stream,” said Ald. Anthony Beale, the top City Council proponent of the machines. “The quicker we can get all these applications online, we can start recouping hundreds of millions of dollars here in the city.”
Beale previously accused Johnson of not notifying the state of the budget decision as a pressure tactic. Johnson’s office did not respond Thursday afternoon to a request for comment.
Earlier Thursday, gaming board administrator Marcus Fruchter said that as soon as they received the official notice from Valencia, “the IGB will recognize Chicago as a video gaming municipality and begin accepting applications from Chicago locations.”
The legalization has become a top issue at City Hall since Beale led the charge to include it in the so-called alternative budget for this year. Since then, several Beale allies have raised concerns about the legalization, which had previously failed to pass on its own and received little public scrutiny from aldermen during the budget process.
Despite the measure’s passage with the budget, it became clear in early January that the future of video gambling remained in flux when Johnson’s top adviser, Jason Lee, told the Tribune that legalization “requires more time and some judicious collaboration,” citing the need for more vendor diversity and input from the operators of Bally’s Casino.
The casino warned it would move to halt a $4 million annual payment to the city if the machines were legalized. It also warned the machines would cut into casino revenues, which are taxed at a higher rate.
The different tax rates could leave Chicago with less money, Johnson’s top finance leaders warned aldermen throughout last year, a prediction sharply at odds with Beale’s flush forecast.
The machines would also thrust gambling into Chicago’s neighborhoods less than three years after the Bally’s temporary downtown location first brought legal betting games to the city. The first legal online sportsbooks launched in Illinois in June 2020.
And as the neighborhood-level machines promise to cap a sea change in gambling’s legality in Chicago, some warn they could cause other problems.
Several aldermen have moved to preemptively ban the machines from their wards. They cite issues like gambling addiction and a spike in burglaries targeting the machines in other parts of the state where they are already legalized.
At least 473 burglaries targeted Illinois businesses with the machines last year, up from 358 in 2024, according to the Sun-Times.
And the Neighborhoods Safety First Association that opposes legalization points to a poll they are using to argue most Chicagoans don’t even want the machines in their bars and restaurants.
One issue complicating the legalization push is the fact that hundreds of similar gambling terminals — the “sweepstakes” machines that skirt rules by not paying out in cash — already operate across the city.
There are 33 such machines scattered throughout the 27th Ward, home to the future permanent Bally’s Casino and overseen by key video gambling terminal opponent Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett, according to the Chicago Video Gaming Business Association, a new group made up of video gambling terminal operators and other businesses hoping to profit from legalization.
Cecilia Brown, a spokesperson for the group, said in a statement that Burnett’s stance will “cost state and city taxpayers millions of dollars” and “continues to withhold much‑needed support from bars and restaurants across Chicago that are struggling to stay afloat.”
“Meanwhile, illegal gambling operations—which pay no taxes, disproportionately impact vulnerable communities, and have been linked to crime—continue to operate without meaningful intervention,” Brown said. “With the process finally moving forward, efforts to reverse the law at this stage would be costly, disruptive and unlikely to succeed.”
But Burnett, who Johnson appointed in September, was clear that he opposes the sweepstakes machines too.
“I want to ban sweepstakes as well. Everyone should play by the same rules,” he said.
The rookie alderman appointed by Johnson in September said the people pushing video gambling terminals have refused to negotiate a regulatory framework to address concerns about safety and mental health. The onus should be on the backers of the legalization push to start the discussion around rules, he argued.
“We have to do better to actually protect our city,” Burnett said. “It’s ridiculous. If people really want to get something done, we actually have to get to work.”
Asked about the need for a regulatory framework, Beale turned his attention to the sweepstakes machines, which do not generate tax revenue for the city.
“There’s over 3,000 illegal sweepstakes machines in the city of Chicago right now. Nobody said anything about those … I’m trying to legalize them and get legitimate revenue that we need,” he said. “It’s just amazing, the hypocrisy when we want to do something legally.”
Further pressed, Beale said there are already strong regulations at the state level, such as a limit of six machines per location. He added that there are “things we need to tighten up” and called for technology that allows the gambling machines to operate without cash to address burglaries.
