After years of delays, the fading casino gambling industry in Illinois is pushing for a comeback — not only by building six new casinos statewide, but replacing existing riverboats with new land-based resorts in Aurora and Joliet.
Despite a gigantic casino planned for Chicago, the suburban casinos are betting that they cannot only compete but thrive with state-of-the-art facilities near busy expressways to attract local gamblers.
New casinos in north suburban Waukegan and Homewood/East Hazel Crest in the south suburbs, along with Aurora, Elgin and Joliet, are far enough from the city that they should be able to build on their own base of nearby patrons, said Chris Grove, partner at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming in California.