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(WTTW News)
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Bally’s temporary Chicago casino rang up just $15.28 million in new gaming tax revenue for the city in 2025, down slightly from 2024, Chicago financial officials told members of the Chicago City Council on Thursday.
Approximately 1.3 million people visited the temporary casino at River North’s Medinah Temple in 2025, about the same number of visitors as the previous year, leading to a 1.3% drop in tax revenues, Bally’s Chicago President Ameet Patel told the City Council’s Contracting and Oversight Equity Committee.
That’s why Bally’s is working as quickly as possible to open the city’s first permanent casino in River West by the end of the year, Patel said.
“I’m very confident it will be the pride of Chicago,” Patel said.
More context:
The temporary casino, which opened in September 2023, has rung up just $87 million in new tax revenue for the city, according to city data.
More than 60% of those revenues came from the $52 million in flat fees Bally’s agreed to pay as part of the deal approved by the City Council in December 2022 that ended a 30-year effort to bring casino gambling to Chicago.
In addition, city officials expect Bally’s will stop paying the city $4 million annually, as called for in the agreement it reached with Chicago officials in 2022 for the city’s first, and only, casino license.
But Chicagoans eager to try their luck at their favorite neighborhood watering hole will have to wait until state officials grant gaming licenses, a lengthy process that will take at least six months, officials said.
Bally’s was fourth in the Chicago area for casino revenue with nearly $125 million in adjusted gross revenue, the amount of money received by the casino operator, minus the winnings paid to those who tried their luck and won.
That is much less than the more than $253 million city officials had originally projected the temporary casino would funnel into the city’s cash-strapped coffers in 2025.
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Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino with federal agents in Minneapolis on January 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
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A federal jury has acquitted a Chicago man accused of placing a bounty on the head of Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino as he spearheaded the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement operations across the city and beyond last fall.
A 12-person jury reached its verdict Thursday afternoon in the case of Juan Espinoza Martinez, a Little Village resident who was charged in a murder-for-hire plot after prosecutors alleged he offered $10,000 for someone to kill Bovino.
They deliberated for three hours in the rapidly-unfolding trial, which featured testimony from just four witnesses in a case where the verdict was announced just a day after opening statements began.
Espinoza Martinez, 37, was arrested on the murder-for-hire charge in October, weeks after the Trump administration launched its “Operation Midway Blitz” enforcement plan — led by Bovino — targeting northern Illinois.
His was the first criminal case stemming from “Midway Blitz” to go to trial in Chicago’s federal court building.
The verdict marks a blow both for federal prosecutors and the Trump administration, which had touted the allegations as a sign of the dangers facing federal immigration agents conducting expanded enforcement operations across the country.
Some backstory:
When he was charged, prosecutors alleged Espinoza Martinez was a “ranking member” of the Latin Kings street gang, while a Homeland Security spokesperson labeled him a “depraved individual” and a “thug.”
Prosecutors later backed off the gang allegations and U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow barred any testimony regarding Espinoza Martinez’s alleged connections to the Latin Kings from trial.
Espinoza Martinez was accused of sending a Snapchat message to his brother and an acquaintance that included a photo of Bovino along with the message “2k on information when you get him” and “10k if u take him down.”
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(WTTW News)
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State officials will probe whether the owner of a South Shore apartment building raided by federal agents in September in an extravaganza designed to go viral on social media tipped off immigration agents in an effort to force out Black and Latino residents, officials said.
The Illinois Department of Human Rights will investigate whether the three firms that own and manage the building at 7500 S. South Shore Drive committed housing discrimination, officials said.
The investigation will focus on “allegations that the building owner and management tipped federal officials about the presence of Venezuelan immigrants in the building in order to intimidate and coerce the building’s Black and Hispanic tenants into leaving the building, based on stereotypes or hostility toward Venezuelan immigrants,” according to a statement from state officials.
“These allegations of housing discrimination raise serious concerns for people struggling to maintain housing — and the communities that have been profiled and relentlessly targeted by the federal government during its violent immigration enforcement operations,” Governor JB Pritzker said in a statement.
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Back in the Day: January 23, 2011 - Bears Lose NFC Championship Game to Rivals
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The Bears and the Packers have only met in the NFL playoffs three times: first in 1941 and most recently on Jan. 10, 2026, where Chicago bested their division rivals 31-27. The other time happened 15 years ago today. Well, it wasn’t a great night for the Lovie Smith-coached Bears, who lost 21-14 to the Mike McCarthy-led Packers. Defense reigned supreme that night: both teams combined for 17 punts and five interceptions and the Bears couldn’t surpass an initial 14-0 Green Bay lead. The Bears’ next playoff appearance would come in 2019 (“The Double Doink Game”).
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New Restaurants To Try During Restaurant Week 2026
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This Friday, WTTW News takes a break from our Holiday Events Guide to highlight some new local eateries showcased by our colleagues at WTTW Playlist.
WTTW Playlist: Now in its 19th year, Chicago Restaurant Week begins today. It boosts restaurants through the fallow period of early winter, with participating restaurants offering special multiple-course prix fixe menus for $30 at brunch or lunch and $45 or $60 at dinner. More than 500 spots in and around Chicago are participating starting today until Feb. 8. You can find all of them at the Chicago Restaurant Week website, as well as menus.
It’s a bounty, so as a way of narrowing things down, we have compiled a list of participating restaurants that opened last year or in the waning months of 2024. We suggest making reservations, as places book up quickly. For the full list, click here.
DixiePura Kitchen
Not everyone is opening a steakhouse. Chloe Gould inventively combines her Southern heritage with the Southeast Asian dishes she encountered while teaching in Singapore. She opened DixiePura Kitchen in her own neighborhood of Bronzeville after overcoming a number of personal challenges.
Nadu
The latest restaurant from Sujan Sarkar, who also runs the Michelin-starred Indienne and Middle Eastern Sifr, Lincoln Park's Nadu focuses on regional Indian cooking, labelling the state of origin of each dish on its menu.
Rendang Republic
You wouldn't expect to find the only Indonesian restaurant in the city in Wrigleyville, but then you also wouldn't expect it to serve a take on a hot dog, Italian beef, or fried chicken sandwich. And yet that's what the casual Rendang Republic does, with a full embrace of Indonesian flavors and textures.
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What’s the most overrated Chicago food specialty?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. Here's what you had to
say:
“Italian Beef. It’s a soggy sandwich made with dry, tasteless meat. The only flavor comes from the giardiniera. It’s some sort of weird Chicago flex.” — @drw4d.bsky.social
"The Gym Shoe: too much going on at once." — Jeffrey J.
“Radioative relish... It only works on hot dogs, so I always end up with an unfinished jar!" — @dmercedesh
"Is Malört food, or does paint thinner not count?" —@pointlessexercise.com
"Deep dish, aka Chicago style, pizza. Give me a thin crust anyday." — Todd R.
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