Wind Creek opens hotel Friday at Chicago-area's fastest growing casino
Guests can book reservations online for the inaugural weekend at the relatively lofty south suburban hotel, starting at $389 per night, according to the website. Choices range from a tidy 350-square-foot room to the expansive Ultra Suite, which will set you back more than $1,500 for a night of high-rolling luxury overlooking the Tri-State Tollway cloverleaf interchange in East Hazel Crest.
While it may be a long way from Las Vegas, Wind Creek, owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, opened its permanent, 70,000 square foot gambling palace in November, and quickly established itself as the second busiest casino in Illinois.
In March, Wind Creek hit new highs with nearly $16.9 million in adjusted gross receipts – up 25% month-over-month – and drew more than 219,000 visitors, according to data from the Illinois Gaming Board.
Overall, the state's 16 casinos generated $170.9 million in adjusted gross receipts and welcomed 1.39 million visitors last month, both figures up by more than 21% over February.
Rivers Casino Des Plaines once again topped the list, at $43.7 million in adjusted gross receipts and 260,000 visitors in March, according to the Gaming Board. Hard Rock Rockford, which moved from a temporary casino to a larger permanent facility in August, ranked third, with $13.1 million in adjusted gross receipts and 129,000 admissions.
The development of new casino facilities is clearly paying off big for the state. Casino revenue in the first quarter of 2025 grew 11.7% to more than $456 million, with about 3.7 million admissions, a 23% increase.
But nearly all of that growth has come from Wind Creek and the new permanent casino at Hard Rock Rockford during the first quarter. Wind Creek generated $43.6 million in revenue – all new money – and Hard Rock nearly doubled to $35.6 million.
Rivers Casino remained on top with $120 million in revenue, but that was down 7.8% from the first quarter of 2024, according to Gaming Board data. Most Chicago-area casinos showed year-over-year revenue declines in the first quarter as the new players gained market share.
Bally's Chicago ranked sixth in revenue among the state's casinos with $29 million during the first quarter, a 4% year-over-year decline. It ranked fourth in admissions at about 310,000, roughly flat compared with 2024. Bally's generated $2.95 million in local taxes for Chicago in the first quarter, according to Gaming Board data. That's $100,000 behind last year's pace, which produced $16 million in tax revenue for the city — about half of the city's projected goal.
Longer term, Chicago is counting on Bally's to create a tourist magnet and profit center, generating $200 million in projected local annual gaming tax revenue. The city and Bally's are banking on the development of a planned $1.7 billion permanent casino to significantly boost revenue and admissions next year.
Bally's Chicago, which opened a temporary facility at Medinah Temple in September 2023, has broken ground on the entertainment complex at the site of the former Chicago Tribune printing plant in River West. The proposal includes an exhibition hall, a 500-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater, 10 restaurants and 4,000 gaming positions — twice that of any other casino in the state.
Last year, Bally's had to relocate its planned hotel tower from north to south of the casino after it was determined that driving caissons into the ground might damage municipal water pipes along the Chicago River.
The target date for opening the permanent Bally's casino and hotel is September 2026. A spokesperson for Rhode Island-based Bally's said there are no new updates on the development's progress Monday.
Meanwhile, the future begins Friday at Wind Creek, whose new hotel amenities will include a spa, indoor pool, fitness center, restaurants, bars and event space. While not nearly as ambitious as the proposed Bally's Chicago facility, the Wind Creek casino and hotel nonetheless has a big head start in turning the south suburbs into a gambling hotspot.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
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