Bids for Chicago integrated resort to begin April

The city of Chicago must decide which operator to award with a licence for an integrated resort.

US.- Officials in Chicago have announced that they are expecting the bid for proposal period for Chicago’s only integrated resort (IR) to begin next month.

Operators will compete for a single IR licence to be authorised under legislation signed by Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker in 2019.

Five smaller casinos were also planned for Waukegan, Rockford, South Suburbs, Williamson County, and Danville.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot said: “We want to make sure that we put out an RFP that’s going to be attractive to some of the top gaming ventures in the world, so for us, the sky’s the limit.”

A request for information conducted last year specified that the IR should be located downtown across 10-25 acres and should feature a gaming floor of between 100,000 and 200,000 square feet, a hotel, convention and entertainment space, and sufficient parking.

Hard Rock, MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts and Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming were some of the operators that responded to the request for information.

While Lightfoot said the selecting process would be “completely open and transparent” she added that “obviously there are some [operators] that we would be very excited if they applied. My hope is that many of them will have Las Vegas addresses.”