American regional casino operator, Full House Resorts Incorporated, has announced that it has become the sixth firm to submit an official application to the Illinois Gaming Board in hopes of winning the right to build and run the gambling facility set to be licensed for the city of Waukegan.

The Las Vegas-headquartered firm used an official Monday press release to detail that its license application is seeking official permission to construct and operate the new American Place casino on a site located adjacent to the northern Illinois city’s Fountain Square shopping district.

Significant suggestion:

Full House Resorts Incorporated declared that the first phase of its Waukegan project would encompass the building of ‘a world-class casino’ complete with ‘a state-of-the-art sports book’ alongside a 20-villa boutique hotel, a 1,500-seat entertainments venue and other restaurants and amenities designed to ‘attract gaming and non-gaming patrons from throughout Chicago-land and beyond’. It also stated that it subsequently intends to add a four-star hotel featuring some 150 rooms to its American Place development as well as even more ‘dining venues, entertainment options and other amenities.’

Interim intention:

Already responsible for five casinos including Nevada’s Grand Lodge Casino and the Silver Slipper Casino Hotel in southern Mississippi, Full House moreover proclaimed that a successful outcome in Illinois would see it open a temporary casino on the Lake County site so that local communities could ‘begin benefiting from its significant job creation and tax revenue generation during the construction process.’

Legislative alteration:

Illinois is already home to ten casinos but legislation signed into law by the Midwestern state’s Governor, Jay Robert Pritzker, in June is due to see this complement grow by as many as six with the licensing of gambling venues for the cities of Chicago, Waukegan, Danville and Rockford as well as for more rural locations in the jurisdictions of Williamson County and Cook County. Although Full House Resorts Incorporated classed its Waukegan proposition as ‘the top proposal among the various submissions,’ the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper reported that the firm is facing stiff competition from the likes of Churchill Downs Incorporated, which already runs the state’s Rivers Casino Des Plains in partnership with Rush Street Gaming, and the federally-recognized tribe behind Milwaukee’s Potawatomi Hotel and Casino, the Forest County Potawatomi Community.

Community cooperation:

Daniel Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer for Full House, used the press release to thank Waukegan Mayor, Sam Cunningham, for helping to advance his firm’s proposal to the Illinois Gaming Board before explaining that the plan was one of only three to be certified by city officials at a special October 17 meeting.

Read a statement from Lee…

“We look forward to presenting our plans to the Illinois Gaming Board and getting the opportunity to develop a first-class gaming facility that will bring jobs and revenues to the city of Waukegan and the state of Illinois.”