Illinois Has 17 Casinos Now and 49,000 Slot Machines in Bars. The Bars Still Win More.

Hollywood Aurora's riverboat closed on June 10, 2026 and its $360 million replacement opened two weeks later. Joliet did the same thing a year earlier. Here is what the 2019 expansion law built outside Chicago, what it has not finished, and why none of it is the biggest gambling business in the state.

Published 2026-11-02.

The riverboat at Hollywood Casino Aurora took its last bet on June 10, 2026. Two weeks later, on June 24, a $360 million casino opened on dry land at 2500 North Farnsworth Avenue by the outlet mall, and in July, its first full month, it won $17.4 million and ranked third of the state's seventeen casinos. A year earlier Hollywood Joliet had done the same thing: boat closed July 29, 2025, land-based casino open August 11.

Illinois now has seventeen casinos, six of them created by the 2019 expansion law and two of the old ones rebuilt since. It also has 49,450 video gaming terminals in 8,861 bars, truck stops and fraternal halls, and in 2025 those machines took in $3.19 billion against the casinos' $1.94 billion. The state's biggest gambling business is still the one with a Keno board and a fish fry.

In 60 seconds

North of the city: Rivers Des Plaines is the giant, 16 miles from downtown and a quarter of all Illinois casino revenue. Hard Rock Rockford is the best new build but has no hotel yet; Waukegan's American Place is a temporary with a permanent now promised for 2028. South and west: Wind Creek in East Hazel Crest has the largest floor in the state and a 255-room hotel; Hollywood Joliet and Hollywood Aurora are brand new buildings on the PENN Play card. Downstate the riverboats survive: Par-A-Dice, Argosy Alton, Casino Queen, Harrah's Metropolis and Bally's Quad Cities. Every floor is smoke-free by state law and every door is 21-plus.

01

What the 2019 law built

Public Act 101-31, signed June 28, 2019, raised the cap on casino licences to sixteen, let the racetracks add slots and tables, and legalized sports betting. The Illinois Gaming Board collected $386 million in upfront fees for the new licences.

Hard Rock Rockford opened a temporary in November 2021 and its permanent casino on August 29, 2024, 79 road miles from downtown Chicago off I-90. Golden Nugget Danville opened May 27, 2023, with 500 machines and 14 tables in 19,489 square feet, the second-smallest floor in the state. Walker's Bluff in Carterville, deep in southern Illinois, opened August 25, 2023 with a hotel, a spa and a bet365 sportsbook. American Place in Waukegan opened its building called The Temporary on February 17, 2023. Wind Creek Chicago Southland in East Hazel Crest opened November 11, 2024, and the board called it the sixteenth casino in the state. Bally's Chicago, which has its own post, still operates from the Medinah Temple while its permanent casino says "coming 2027" and the board has extended the temporary's permission to September 2027.

The seventeenth is a racino. Fairmount Park in Collinsville, across the river from St. Louis, started slots on April 21, 2025, was licensed that August, and added live tables in spring 2026.

02

The bars

The number that explains Illinois is on page 48 of the gaming board's 2025 annual report. Video gaming terminals, the five-or-six-machine rooms in bars and gas stations, produced $3.186 billion in net terminal income in 2025, up 6 percent, and paid $1.115 billion in tax. The seventeen casinos produced $1.944 billion in adjusted gross receipts the same year. For every dollar a casino won, the bars won $1.64.

That is the state you are gambling in.

That shapes the casinos you visit. A new Illinois casino is competing not with Las Vegas but with the terminal room at the VFW two miles from your house, which is why the new builds lean so hard on live tables, poker rooms, sportsbooks and concert halls, the things a bar cannot offer. Our locals casino post describes the same economics in a different state.

03

North and northwest: Des Plaines, Rockford, Waukegan, Elgin

Rivers Casino Des Plaines won $503 million in 2025, more than a quarter of the state total and two and a half times the second-place casino. It opened in 2011 next to O'Hare, 16 road miles from the Loop, and an $87 million expansion topped off in 2021 took it to the state's 2,000-position cap. It has the BetRivers sportsbook, a poker room and the Rush Rewards card. It is not a resort; there is no hotel. It is the most profitable casino in the Midwest because it is the closest big one to the most people, and that is the whole strategy. Hard Rock Casino Rockford won $146 million in 2025, third in the state. The property lists about 1,300 slots, 50 live tables including poker, a sportsbook and a Hard Rock Live hall that seats up to 2,000 for concerts, and the card is Unity, which also covers Hard Rock Atlantic City and the Seminole casinos in Florida. There is no hotel; the casino lists partner hotels, and in May 2026 the city's finance committee approved a $103 million bond for a 215-to-225-room hotel and convention center next door, with public comment in July. Until that is built, Rockford is a day trip or a concert night.

American Place in Waukegan is the new build that has not happened. The Temporary won $122 million in 2025, which is respectable, but the permanent casino's budget was cut from $325 million to $302 million in November 2025, ground was broken in June 2026 for a roughly two-year build and a 2028 opening, and in October 2026 the operator, Full House Resorts, said it was in advanced discussions to finance all of the construction while refinancing notes due in 2028. The gaming board has allowed the Temporary to operate until February 2029 once the state's revenue omnibus bill is signed. It has a 24-hour floor and the Harbor Poker Room, about 30 minutes north of O'Hare by the company's description and 38 road miles from downtown. Go for the poker; do not book around the permanent.

Grand Victoria Elgin is the one that quietly changed hands. Eldorado bought it in 2018 for $327.5 million and became Caesars in 2020, so the boat that opened in 1994 now has a Caesars Sportsbook and a WSOP poker room and earns Caesars Rewards. It won $142 million in 2025, fourth in the state, and sits 40 road miles from downtown. For a Caesars member in the northwest suburbs it is the closest tier credit, with Harrah's Joliet the alternative to the south.
04

South and west: Wind Creek, Joliet, Aurora

Wind Creek Chicago Southland has the largest casino floor in Illinois, 81,266 square feet, and won $198 million in 2025, its first full year, for second place. The 255-room hotel with 43 suites opened in April 2025, about five months after the casino, the Kambi-run sportsbook followed in March 2026, and there is an 11,000-square-foot spa and a free shuttle from Chinatown. The casino is on Halsted Street in East Hazel Crest, 26 road miles south of downtown.

Hollywood Casino Joliet moved from its boat to a $185 million land-based casino at Rock Run Crossings on August 11, 2025, with about 1,000 slots, more than 40 tables and an ESPN Bet sportsbook, and won $103 million for the year across both buildings. There was no hotel at opening; a September 2026 report said a modest one was under construction. Harrah's Joliet, downtown on the river since 1993, won $114 million. Both are 45 road miles from the Loop.

Hollywood Casino Aurora is the newest building in the state. PENN's page lists more than 1,000 slots, more than 50 tables, a sportsbook and a 226-room hotel with a spa; the hotel was approved by the city in September 2026 and should be read as coming, not open. The old boat won $102 million in 2025; July 2026, the first full month on land, brought $17.4 million and about 156,000 visitors. Aurora is 37 road miles west of downtown.

Casino2025 revenue (IGB)Road miles from the LoopHotel
Rivers Des Plaines$503.1M16none
Wind Creek Chicago Southland$198.0M26255 rooms
Hard Rock Rockford$146.2M79none; planned
Grand Victoria Elgin$142.2M40none
American Place Waukegan$121.7M38none
Harrah's Joliet$114.4M45yes
Hollywood Joliet$102.9M45under construction
Hollywood Aurora$101.7M37approved, not open
05

Downstate: the boats that stayed boats

Argosy Alton was the first casino in Illinois, opening September 11, 1991, and in 2025 it was the smallest full casino by revenue at $35.2 million. It is 24 road miles from the Gateway Arch, which PENN rounds to 25 minutes. A 2025 bill would have let the three weakest casinos apply to relocate; nothing has moved. DraftKings at Casino Queen in East St. Louis is 2 miles from the Arch, has a hotel, and has belonged to Bally's since February 2025, when Bally's bought its parent; it won $83.7 million. Both are covered from the Missouri side in our St. Louis guide. Par-A-Dice in East Peoria, Boyd's three-deck riverboat on the Illinois River since 1991, won $61.9 million and is getting a $160 million rebuild. The plan the gaming board approved on February 26, 2026 keeps the casino on the water, on a permanent barge, after Boyd dropped an inland-basin version the city had sued over. Bally's Quad Cities in Rock Island, the former Jumer's, won $65.3 million and has a hotel and indoor pool; it competes across the river with Iowa's boats. Harrah's Metropolis, on the Ohio across from Paducah, won $56 million, closed for flooding in April 2025 and has posted the state's steepest declines since; it is a Caesars Rewards property 13 miles from Paducah and 148 from Nashville.

Golden Nugget Danville, 84 road miles west of Indianapolis, won $39.1 million in 2025 and is growing slowly; it has no hotel. Walker's Bluff won $35.7 million with the fewest admissions of any Illinois casino, 272,886 for the year, and is a resort with a casino attached; it carries the Elite Casino Resorts brand, and Kehl Management holds its management licence. Both are far from everything, which is the point of them.

06

Where the usual advice is wrong

The usual advice to Chicagoans is to wait for Bally's. The permanent casino's date has slipped from 2025 to 2026 to "2027," the temporary has been extended to September 2027, and in August 2026 the company said it was resetting the construction pace. Meanwhile the two newest, largest floors in the region opened in 2024 and 2026 at Wind Creek and Aurora, 26 and 37 miles from the Loop, with hotels either open or approved. If you have been waiting since 2022, you have been waiting for the wrong casino.

The second piece of advice is to drive to Indiana or Michigan for a "real" resort. Our Indiana guide explains why that used to be right. In 2026 the Illinois side has caught up on buildings; where it still trails is smoking, because every Illinois floor has been smoke-free since January 1, 2008 under the Smoke Free Illinois Act, which names gaming facilities expressly. For non-smokers that is the best reason to stay on this side of the line, and we track the policy state by state in our smoke-free casinos post.

The full list, with distances from wherever you are, is on our Illinois casinos page. If gambling has stopped being something you decide the cost of in advance, 1-800-GAMBLER is free and confidential.

What was checked, and when. Revenue, admissions, floor sizes and opening dates are from the Illinois Gaming Board's 2025 Annual Report and its casino list; video gaming figures are from the same report. Opening and closing dates for Joliet and Aurora, the Waukegan timeline, the Par-A-Dice approval and the Rockford hotel bond are from CDC Gaming Reports and Illinois Gaming Board releases dated 2025 and 2026. Slot and table counts and hotel details are from each property's website on November 2, 2026. Road distances are OpenStreetMap routing from Daley Plaza, the Gateway Arch and Monument Circle, not Google Maps. Harrah's Joliet's room count and Walker's Bluff's current room count were not published on the pages we could read and are left out.

Last updated November 2, 2026

Topics

  • illinois
  • rockford
  • joliet
  • aurora
  • riverboats

Related guides

More casino guides