The long-expected Wind Creek Chicago Southland casino won’t be opened anytime soon, according to the newest information. 

Bally’s – new competition:

It isn’t good news for the audience and owners of the casino, but the four Northwest Indiana casinos are satisfied with the delay since they’ll continue to operate without new competition for a while. However, this “while” might come sooner than expected since a new temporary Bally’s Casino with 750 new slot machines and 50 table games will be opened in a few months in Chicago’s River North neighborhood.

The works on the Bally’s permanent casino will be worth $1.7 billion, and it will be situated at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street in River West, in Chicago.

It is expected to open at the beginning of 2026, and it will contain about 3.400 slot machines and 173 table games, twice as much as Hard Rock. The casino will be accompanied by the hotel with 500 rooms and a theater with 3.000 seats, as well as other amenities.

18 month delay:

The opening of the Wind Creek is delayed for at least 18 months, with a possibility to be further delayed after that deadline passes. The casino, which is supposed to be placed between Homewood and East Hazel Crest in Illinois, is connected to Interstate 80/294 at Halsted Street, which is only six miles west of the state line between Illinois and Indiana. 

Two communities approved the redevelopment agreements, but the opening day is scheduled for January 2, 2025, with the possibility of another delay. At first, it was expected that the casino would be opened in the second half of 2023 or at the beginning of 2024, but it proved impossible. 

Impressive casino:

The casino officials didn’t want to comment on the delay, and all information that can be found on the company’s website are details about the future property. The casino will be placed across 70.000 square feet, and there will be 252 hotel rooms in the 16-story hotel. The casino will provide 800 people with full-time jobs. When it comes to the opening date, there’s only one claim: “Coming soon.”

On December 8, 2021, Illinois Gaming Board approved the building of the new casino with the authorization of the 2019 Illinois General Assembly. The new Wind Creek resort will be a commercial enterprise of the famous Poarch Band of Creek Indians based in Alabama.

Last summer, the groundbreaking ceremony was held, and since then, the only visible changes were the vertical construction of the future building.

The casino will be impressive: it will contain 1.350 slot machines, as well as 56 table games. Wind Creek didn’t want to open a temporary casino while the works on construction were still in progress. The company won the rights to build the casino on the property against Matteson, Lynwood, and Calumet City; all of them submitted the plans for their resorts as well.