Rivers Keeps Its Illinois License as Hawthorne’s Unravels

The Illinois Gaming Board voted 4-0 on September 12, 2024, to renew Rivers Casino’s owners license through August 2028.

The Des Plaines house by O’Hare still leads Illinois. Hawthorne Race Course got a sportsbook renewal at the same sitting, and that permit is the one now in a bankruptcy fight.

The 4-0 Vote That Locked In August 2028

Four members sat in the Michael A. Bilandic Building that Thursday: Chairman Charles Schmadeke and members Dionne Hayden, James Kolar and Sean Brannon, who had joined the board three days earlier. After closed session they came back on the record at 10:34 a.m. and took up Midwest Gaming & Entertainment, the company that does business as Rivers Casino.

The board waived its two-meeting rule and renewed the owners license for four years, backdated to August 2024 so it would not lapse. It also found Timothy Joseph Drehkoff suitable as a key person and restated a long list of owners still fit to hold the license, among them Churchill Downs Incorporated, Rush Street Gaming, and Chicago investor Neil Bluhm.

General Manager Corey Wise walked the board through the last term. He said Rivers had sent $568 million in state and local gaming taxes over those four years, and that table games (blackjack, craps, roulette and poker) had produced $132.3 million of the $270.5 million then on the Illinois table. The casino had spent $115 million on an expansion finished in 2022 and another $6 million on a VIP lounge and a sit-down restaurant. He put the payroll at more than 1,900 people, 93% of them full-time.

Through the first eight months of 2024, the house had kept $346.2 million after prizes and paid $103.9 million in state and local tax. Admissions were down less than 1% from 2023 and still topped two million visits, even with Bally’s temporary Chicago casino already open at Medinah Temple. Revenue in that span was down 5.2% year over year. Average win per visit sat at $170.31, nearly double Bally’s $91.71.

WHAT THE BOARD PASSED ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

• Rivers owners license: Four years, backdated to August 2024 and running through August 2028.
• Hawthorne sportsbook: Master sports wagering license renewed through September 2028 on the same 4-0 vote.
• BetRivers permit: Rush Street Interactive received a four-year management services license through September 2028, replacing a temporary permit it had held since June 2020.
• Ad rules: First-notice advertising rules for casinos, video gaming and sports wagering moved to the Secretary of State.

Administrator Marcus Fruchter told the room Illinois then had 15 casinos. Hard Rock Casino Rockford had opened its permanent floor on August 29. From January through August, with some August sports and video figures still out, state gaming tax had already reached $808 million and local tax $162 million.

How Much Tax Rivers Sent Illinois in 2025

The license has had a full calendar year to run. In 2025 the Illinois Gaming Board recorded $503,053,035 in 2025 adjusted gross receipts at Rivers, the money the house kept after paying winners. That was 25.9% of the state’s $1,943,722,562 casino win, across 17 casinos and 15,560,865 visits.

Table games at Rivers brought in $183,293,318, or 40.0% of the $457,832,199 statewide table drop. Slots and other electronic games added $319,759,717. The state took $141,709,958 in Rivers tax and the host share was $28,127,196, a combined $169,837,154. Players walked through the doors 2,974,544 times, about 8,149 a day, and left $169.12 per visit. The floor is 78,500 square feet, with room for 8,712 people, 1,999 gambling positions and 1,856 staff.

ILLINOIS CASINO RECEIPTS IN 2025

Statewide, casinos paid $408,178,068 to Springfield and $121,047,691 to host towns. Another $244 million in casino tax was moved to the Education Assistance Fund. On the May 2026 monthly sheet, Rivers still sat first at $48.7 million of $192.8 million in statewide receipts.

The Village That Booked a Path to Zero Debt

Rivers opened on July 18, 2011, on River Road in Des Plaines, a short hop from O’Hare. Churchill Downs Incorporated later about $407 million for a majority stake, a deal the Gaming Board cleared on March 1, 2019, and Churchill Downs closed on March 5. Rush Street Gaming still runs the floor. BetRivers, the mobile book tied to the property, was the first online operator to take a legal Illinois sports bet, in June 2020.

Des Plaines Mayor Andrew Goczkowski spoke at the renewal. He said casino tax had cut village debt from $102 million in 2005 to $6.8 million, and he projected the village would be debt-free by 2028, the year this owners license runs out.

collaboration that has evolved into a model of community engagement, strategic development and collective growth.

Andrew Goczkowski, Mayor of Des Plaines, Illinois Gaming Board meeting, September 12, 2024

That local check is why a clean 4-0 vote was never a close call. Rivers is the largest single casino taxpayer the board regulates, and Des Plaines has spent a decade and a half booking the proceeds against old debt.

17 Casinos, and Rivers Still First

The 2019 expansion law added new licenses, let riverboats move onto dry land, and cut the old graduated casino tax. The Committee on Governmental Forecasting and Accountability found the average effective casino tax rate fell from 27.3% in fiscal 2020 to 20.0% in fiscal 2025, and that the effective tax rate on Rivers fell to 31.9% from 42.6% over that span. Rivers gained more from the cut than any other house.

New rooms still took a bite. Fiscal 2025 statewide casino receipts rose 12.2%, from $1.618 billion to $1.816 billion, because Wind Creek Chicago Southland in East Hazel Crest opened on November 11, 2024, and other new or rebuilt floors filled in. Most older casinos were flat or down. Rivers itself slid from $526.7 million in fiscal 2024 to $504.7 million in fiscal 2025, a 4.2% drop the committee blamed on that new supply. The calendar-year IGB figure of $503,053,035 tells the same story in a slightly different window.

Wind Creek’s 81,266-square-foot floor is larger than Rivers, drew 2,116,090 visits in 2025, and still finished a distant second at $197,952,986. Hard Rock’s permanent Rockford building, which Fruchter flagged the morning of the Rivers vote, kept $146,186,678. The lead held. Churchill Downs, which closed Arlington Park and had the grandstand demolished, still holds the majority of the Illinois casino that prints the most tax. That is the trade the 2024 renewal locked in through August 2028.

Hawthorne’s Sportsbook License Survived 2024 and Hit a Wall

Hawthorne, in Stickney, was in the room that morning as a success story of a different kind. It had been among the first Illinois tracks to open a retail sportsbook, in July 2020 with PointsBet, later swapped to Fanatics. The 2019 law also gave it a path to 1,200 casino positions and a veto on a new racetrack within 35 miles. The Gaming Board had found the track preliminarily suitable for a casino license in July 2020. The racino was never built.

Tim Carey, the Carey family president, kept telling regulators a partner and a loan were close. Checks started bouncing in late 2025. On January 26, 2026, Fanatics cut the mobile and internet tether and moved that Illinois book to Argosy Casino in Alton, while leaving retail bets at the track and some off-track shops. The same day the Illinois Racing Board suspended Suburban Downs, the harness entity, for failing to show it could pay its bills.

HAWTHORNE FROM RENEWAL TO SALE

1. July 2020: The Gaming Board finds Hawthorne preliminarily suitable for a casino license and issues a master sports wagering license.
2. September 12, 2024: The board renews that sports wagering license through September 2028 on a 4-0 vote.
3. January 26, 2026: Fanatics ends the mobile deal; the Racing Board suspends Suburban Downs.
4. February 27, 2026: Hawthorne files Chapter 11, listing debts of more than $100 million.
5. September 1, 2026: The Stickney land sale to Allimac 2023 LLC closes for $90 million. The buyer is not a racetrack or casino company.
6. September 16, 2026: The Racing Board rejects 2027 race dates. The Gaming Board files a separate motion to act on Hawthorne’s casino and sports wagering licenses, saying the company no longer runs a racetrack.

Live racing in the Chicago area ended with that sale. Horsemen had wanted a casino company to buy the plant and finally build the racino the 2019 statute invited. The winning bid was a Delaware land company. A racing writer still argued the old Stickney oval was worth saving if a deep-pocketed owner showed up. The sale closed anyway, and the backstretch had to be empty by the end of August.

The Racino That Never Opened

Fairmount Park downstate did what Hawthorne did not. Accel Entertainment bought that Collinsville track and put a casino on it, so Illinois got one racino, just not in Cook County. Hawthorne’s 2025 sportsbook still produced $119,715,849 in adjusted gross receipts, real money on a license the board had extended into 2028. The mobile handle left with Fanatics in January. Retail bets at a track that no longer exists are the stub that remains.

Why the Gaming Board Is Back in Bankruptcy Court

On September 16, 2026, the Gaming Board told the bankruptcy court Hawthorne no longer qualifies for a gaming license because it no longer operates a racetrack, and that this is grounds to revoke or suspend the sports wagering license issued in 2020 and renewed in 2024. The Racing Board, in its own filing, said the company cannot keep off-track and advance-deposit licenses while its organization license is out of good standing. About 10 betting shops were still open. A hearing on those requests was set for September 23, 2026. The papers themselves do not pull any permit.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Rivers term: The Des Plaines owners license runs through August 2028 and does not come up at the board before then.
• Hawthorne paper: The September 2024 sports wagering renewal still exists on the books until the board or a judge acts on it.
• Track gone: The Stickney property sold on September 1, 2026, for $90 million, with no racing planned.

WHAT’S UNCONFIRMED

• Stay relief: Whether the bankruptcy judge will let the Gaming Board and Racing Board start revocation cases.
• Land use: What Allimac 2023 LLC will build in Stickney, and whether the village’s data-center pause changes that plan.
• Retail stubs: How long any Hawthorne-branded betting shops can take wagers without a live track behind them.

Rivers will next sit for an owners license in August 2028, still the house that takes about one in four dollars Illinois casinos keep. Hawthorne’s 2028 sportsbook date, stamped on the same morning, is the date that no longer describes the business.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on Illinois casino and sports wagering licenses and is for information only. It is not legal advice, licensing advice, or a recommendation to gamble, buy, sell, or hold any operator’s securities. Readers who need to rely on the status of a specific license should consult a licensed Illinois attorney who works on gaming regulation, and anyone with a gambling problem should contact the Illinois Department of Human Services helpline and the Gaming Board’s self-exclusion program. Receipts, tax totals, license terms and court postures are those published by the Illinois Gaming Board, the Racing Board and the companies named, and they can change as monthly reports and bankruptcy orders post.