As City Hall hunts for more cash to balance Chicago’s ledger, aldermen and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration alike have shown increased interest in greenlighting airport gambling.
But even with the mayor’s finance team saying this week they are considering allowing slot machines at O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, Thursday’s Aviation Department budget hearing devolved into a dispute over how such a change would work and how the money would get spent.
Northwest Side Ald. Gilbert Villegas cited state law to question whether revenue generated by gambling might be required to stay within the airports’ coffers. Airport officials did not answer clearly when pressed by downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly on where the tax proceeds would go.
Michael McMurray, the Johnson-appointed Chicago Department of Aviation commissioner, said he “would imagine it would somehow maybe have to stay at the airport,” while telling aldermen that was just a guess.
“So yeah, that’s kind of a conundrum, right?” he added.
Michael J. McMurray, the new commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation, is introduced during a Chicago City Council meeting at City Hall on May 21, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)
Johnson’s handpicked Budget Committee chair, Ald. Jason Ervin, quickly interrupted to share a contrasting view, but added that the question must be answered.
“I think that’s a really important question for us, especially given that our pension funds are depending on that money,” Reilly said.
If the money has to be spent at the airports, it could make it harder for aldermen to support the slots idea. Many council members who backed former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pitch to bring a casino to Chicago did so because the casino tax proceeds could be used to shore up the city’s frail pension funds.
Johnson’s top finance leader gave the administration’s clearest signal of support yet for the installation of casino-style slot machines at O’Hare and Midway earlier this week.
The city’s chief financial officer, Jill Jaworski, told aldermen Tuesday her team has been “in conversations” about moving forward on airport slot machines. Bally’s Casino, which would have first dibs to launch airport gambling operations, has expressed interest in the effort, she added.
“There are some technical challenges we have to deal with, ensuring that we’re complying with all the regulations that are at the airport, but again, those conversations are ongoing,” Jaworski said. “[Bally’s has] identified a site at Midway, and we have worked to move that forward.”
McMurray on Thursday said he had “not seen any proposals having to do with slots at any of our airports. I have not talked to Bally’s about slots at our airports.”
The state law that granted Chicago a casino also gives its developer, Bally’s, the right to open slot machines at the airports, so long as the total number of “gaming positions” at all its locations don’t exceed 4,000.
Villegas, who has championed airport gambling for months, called the slots a “good idea” as he asked Jaworski if they might be coming soon.
“I know that the administration said that it was not a good idea,” he said. “It’s money that 60% and 70% of the revenue is going to come from people who are not even from Chicago.”
Slot machines at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on Nov. 15, 2023. (Jakub Porzycki/AP)
The finance chief pushed back against Villegas’ description of the administration’s stance and reiterated that her team is “working to move that forward.”
Johnson’s top adviser, Jason Lee, discounted the idea of slots in airports in August when he questioned in a Sun-Times interview whether it would be in the public interest. Such a move would “raise a number of concerns,” he said.
“That would be a pretty significant change to the culture of our airports. Chicago is not known primarily as a gaming destination like Las Vegas,” Lee said.
But some aldermen have staunchly backed the possibility of airport slots while also pushing in recent months for the broad legalization of video gambling terminals throughout the city’s bars and restaurants.
City Council members even gave video gambling terminals committee-level approval last month, though a final vote has not occurred as Johnson officials call for a more favorable tax revenue split between the city and state.