This summer, there's no vacation for Bally's, only three simultaneous tough battles. Chicago's $1.8 billion permanent casino just got its temporary license extended and immediately faced the lifting of the VGT ban; Las Vegas's $1.8 billion permanent casino just got its temporary license extended and immediately faced the lifting of the VGT ban; Las Vegas's $1.2 billion Boulevard project is being publicly rushed by partners; New York Bronx's $4 billion integrated resort is stuck on the countdown to start construction. PASA's official website found that this gambling company, which has been the most aggressive in acquisitions in recent years, is undergoing a "stress test" in three cities — and the real test of its financial underpinnings has just begun.
Chicago Betrayal: The promised exclusivity, suddenly thousands of machines appeared
Bally's situation in Chicago can be described as "backstabbed". At the end of last year, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's original budget was overturned by the city council, and the alternative version lifted the city's ban on video gaming terminals (VGT). The approved budget included **$6.8 million in VGT license revenue**, assuming about 80% of approximately 3,300 liquor-licensed venues citywide would apply. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, nearly 300 venues have already submitted machine hosting applications.
Bally's Senior Vice President Christopher Jewett threw out an alternative at a fiery city council committee meeting this week: setting up slot machine bars at O'Hare and Midway airports. He claimed that each bar could contribute about $5 million in gambling taxes and entry taxes per year, which would fill the VGT budget gap. The meeting ended without any resolution, in discord.
But what Bally's really worries about is not the $6.8 million budget gap, but a complete rewrite of the competitive landscape. The company estimates that if VGTs are deployed citywide, its temporary and permanent casinos' **annual revenue could be cut by about $75 million, while reducing about 1,000 jobs**. Jewett's statement at the hearing was clearly reluctant: "If we had known that this institution would renege and allow another form of gambling to breach the agreement within a few years, we would never have accepted those promises — and we have fulfilled every one of them."
Initially, to secure Chicago's only casino license, Bally's signed a package of community agreements including annual city payments of $4 million. The legalization of VGTs could invalidate many of these terms, even leading to lawsuits. And from statewide data, VGT's money-drawing power is indeed terrifying: from 2026 to date, Illinois casinos' adjusted total revenue was **$889.5 million**, local taxes $53.6 million, while VGT terminal net revenue has already reached **$1.4 billion**, local taxes **$68.5 million** — the latter completely crushing the former. The state already has more than 1,100 municipalities accepting VGTs, with Chicago previously being the largest and most notable "blank area".
Las Vegas Urging Accounts: LVCVA issues an ultimatum, demanding a plan by August
Turning to Las Vegas, Bally's $1.2 billion integrated development on the Strip is also troubled. The project is adjacent to the Oakland Athletics MLB ballpark, which is under construction and scheduled to open in spring 2028. The ballpark's progress seems fine, but doubts are growing whether Bally's shared plot can keep up.
Steve Hill, President and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), told The Athletic a harsh statement: Bally's "can't produce the development funds". The LVCVA has "quite directly" demanded that the operator submit future plans by August. If Bally's can't keep up, the Athletics might build some of the facilities themselves, adding about $100 million in extra construction costs to Bally's.
This Thursday, Bally's CFO Mira Milcheva and lawyer Dan Rizzo confirmed to the Nevada Gaming Commission: The April 2028 deadline applies only to the ballpark, and it's "unlikely" that the casino and hotel parts will open at the same time, by then only retail and entertainment areas might be completed. Simply put, the ballpark will light up as scheduled, but Bally's building is still uncertain when it will be ready.
New York Build-up: The $40 billion behemoth is about to awaken
While two lines are tight, an even larger project is waiting at the starting line. Last winter, Bally's won a downstate New York casino license, planning to build an integrated resort on a golf course it owns in the Bronx, with a total cost of **$40 billion** — almost the combined scale of Chicago and Las Vegas. The public timetable shows that after the license was issued last December, construction will start "about 8 to 9 months later", which is right around August to September this year. Bally's previously told iGB that it is "highly motivated to start construction as soon as possible this fall".
Financial Bottom Line: Cash $559 million, net debt $559 million, net debt $4.3 billion
Opening Bally's financial books, the ratio of audacity to pressure is clear at a glance. Since 2025, the company has continuously acquired major stakes in Intralot, Evoke, and Star Entertainment, along with the simultaneous advancement of three major US projects, stretching the battle lines quite long. At the end of Q1, the balance sheet showed cash of **$559 million**, opposite long-term net debt of **over $559 million**, opposite long-term net debt of **over $4.3 billion** and **$2.2 billion** in lease liabilities. The stock price has risen about 50% over the past year, but has fallen back **15%** in the last six months — the market's optimistic sentiment about asset accumulation is giving way to concerns about the speed of cash burn.
Hardly any gambling company has been as aggressive as Bally's in both acquisitions and development on two fronts in such a short time. PASA's official website believes that with three giant projects in three cities, any serious delays or cost overruns in any of them could have a significant chain reaction. The August LVCVA plan milestone, the legislative direction of Chicago's VGT, and the progress of the Bronx's construction, these three time windows will jointly determine whether Bally's will "triumph on all fronts" or "fail on all fronts".
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leader" gambling industry news channel: https://t.me/pasa_news
Original in-depth gambling channel: https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data report: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
