{"id":119443,"date":"2019-11-11T10:58:51","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T18:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=119443"},"modified":"2019-11-11T11:36:32","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T19:36:32","slug":"rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Rivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s land ho! for Illinois\u2019 most lucrative casino. The Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, north of Chicago, has been sitting in a pit on top of several inches of water in order to satisfy state \u201criverboat\u201d regulations<\/a> ever since it launched in 2011.<\/p>\n

\"Rivers
The Rivers Casino in Des Plaines never looked much like a boat, and thanks to its new license it no longer needs to keep up the pretense. (Image: Rivers Casino Des Plaines)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, thanks to wide-ranging gambling reforms<\/a> signed late June by Governor J.B. Pritzker — and the blessing of the state gaming regulator — Rivers can strike out for dry land.<\/p>\n

New laws allow for Illinois\u2019s 10 riverboat casinos to operate inland once they gain approval of the gaming control board and pay a $250,000 fee. This, in turn, aids gaming expansion, as operators — now far less constrained by the size of their floating casinos — will be permitted up to 2,000 gaming positions, which were previously capped at 1,200.<\/p>\n

\n

Rivers is the first \u201cfloating\u201d casino to receive a new inland license, and operator Rush Street Gaming plans to invest $150 million to expand the casino to the new maximum 2,000 positions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re incrementally adding these games,\u201d casino spokesman Patrick Skarr told The Chicago Tribune<\/em>\u00a0Sunday. \u201cBy going land-based, we can reconfigure some of our existing footprint not above water, add these games and positions within that, and then move forward with our larger expansion program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports Betting Licenses for Christmas<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The gaming expansion package also legalizes sports betting, and Rivers is in the process of building a sports book lounge.<\/p>\n

Last Thursday, the Illinois Gaming Board announced it would begin receiving applications from prospective operators for sports wagering from December 19.<\/p>\n

This includes casinos, racetracks, sports stadiums and lottery vendors, but standalone mobile operators will have to wait. Largely because of lobbying from Rush Street, the legislature chose to freeze mobile-only operators like DraftKings and FanDuel out of the market for 18 months to allow land-based operators to \u201ccatch up\u201d with the technology.<\/p>\n

Churchill Downs Deal<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Rivers is Illinois\u2019s biggest-earning casino, generating $440 million in gross gaming revenues in the fiscal year 2019. In March, Rush Street sold a 61 percent stake in the casino to Kentucky-based Churchill Downs Inc., while retaining management of the operations.<\/p>\n

\n

This new partnership has also made a bid to build a casino from the ground up in Waukegan. The Waukegan license is one of three created by the new legislation for completely new casinos, along with one in downtown Chicago and another in Danville.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Meanwhile, existing racetracks in Chicago\u2019s southern suburbs will be able to upgrade to full-scale casinos.<\/p>\n

All this means the gaming landscape in Illinois is changing — and changing quickly. The Pritzker administration is eager to move swiftly to get things up and running so that the state can begin receiving new recurring revenue streams.<\/p>\n

Gaming expansion forms part of an ambitious new capital plan that will plow $45 billion into infrastructure and state facilities over the next six years under the \u201cRebuild Illinois\u201d banner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s land ho! for Illinois\u2019 most lucrative casino. The Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, north of Chicago, has been sitting in a pit on top of several inches of water in order to satisfy state \u201criverboat\u201d regulations ever since it launched in 2011. Now, thanks to wide-ranging gambling reforms signed late June by Governor J.B. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":119453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33810,13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rivers Casino Des Plaines is Illinois' most lucrative casino and it\u2019s about to get bigger, as Gaming Board moves \u201cfloating\u201d requirement.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rivers Casino Des Plaines is Illinois' most lucrative casino and it\u2019s about to get bigger, as Gaming Board moves \u201cfloating\u201d requirement.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-11T18:58:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-11T19:36:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rivers.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1424\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/\",\"name\":\"Rivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rivers.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-11T18:58:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-11T19:36:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Rivers Casino Des Plaines is Illinois' most lucrative casino and it\u2019s about to get bigger, as Gaming Board moves \u201cfloating\u201d requirement.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rivers.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rivers.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1424,\"caption\":\"The Rivers Casino in Des Plaines never looked much like a boat, and thanks to its new license it no longer needs to keep up the pretense. (Image: Rivers Casino Des Plaines)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gaming Business\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Rivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land","description":"Rivers Casino Des Plaines is Illinois' most lucrative casino and it\u2019s about to get bigger, as Gaming Board moves \u201cfloating\u201d requirement.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land","og_description":"Rivers Casino Des Plaines is Illinois' most lucrative casino and it\u2019s about to get bigger, as Gaming Board moves \u201cfloating\u201d requirement.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-11-11T18:58:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-11-11T19:36:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2048,"height":1424,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rivers.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/","name":"Rivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rivers.jpg","datePublished":"2019-11-11T18:58:51+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-11T19:36:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Rivers Casino Des Plaines is Illinois' most lucrative casino and it\u2019s about to get bigger, as Gaming Board moves \u201cfloating\u201d requirement.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rivers.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rivers.jpg","width":2048,"height":1424,"caption":"The Rivers Casino in Des Plaines never looked much like a boat, and thanks to its new license it no longer needs to keep up the pretense. (Image: Rivers Casino Des Plaines)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/rivers-casino-des-plaines-gets-license-to-expand-onto-dry-land\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gaming Business","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Rivers Casino Des Plaines Gets License to Expand Onto Dry Land"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}