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Bally’s has retained RKF Global PLLC, where former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is a partner, as the company weighs legal action over the city’s decision to legalize video gambling terminals, a move Bally’s says could undermine its casino host agreement with Chicago.
The dispute follows City Council approval of Chicago’s $16.6 billion 2026 budget, which lifted the city’s long-standing ban on video gambling and assumed $6.8 million in revenue from licensing terminals across the city. Bally’s, which is developing a permanent casino in River West, has strongly opposed the change.
“We are pleased to have built an excellent and knowledgeable team here in Chicago. As we ramp up efforts to protect our investment in the city, we have also brought on the strategic counsel of RKF Global PLLC, where former Mayor Lightfoot is a partner,” Bally’s said in a statement.
Lightfoot has thus far declined to comment on her involvement in Bally’s potential legal challenge, which was first disclosed by Crain’s Chicago Business.
The issue has drawn scrutiny because Lightfoot negotiated the casino agreement while she was mayor. David Greising, president and CEO of the Better Government Association, called her involvement “a pretty bald conflict of interest,” reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
Greising said the city’s ethics rules appear to restrict a former mayor from assisting a client on a contract over which she had substantial managerial responsibility.
Steven Berlin, executive director of the Chicago Board of Ethics, said he could not comment on Bally’s decision. Speaking generally, he said the ethics ordinance bars a former mayor for one year after leaving office from “assisting or representing a new client in subject matters they were personally and substantially involved in…”
Lightfoot secured City Council approval for Bally’s three years ago after the company agreed to provide $40 million in upfront payments to help support police and fire pensions and avoid a pre-election property tax increase.
The selection was contested at the time by Aldermen Brian Hopkins and Brendan Reilly, who argued that Bally’s had never built a casino from the ground up and that the planned $1.7 billion River West casino and entertainment complex would worsen traffic in an already congested area.
Hopkins and Reilly also accused Lightfoot of bypassing the City Council committee she had created to review the casino decision. Reilly separately objected to the late decision to use the landmark Medinah Temple as Bally’s temporary casino site, warning that it would add traffic pressure and worsen crime concerns in River North.
Ald. Anthony Beale, the City Council’s leading supporter of video gambling terminals, criticized Bally’s decision to hire Lightfoot’s firm. “That is a quid pro quo to try to reward somebody who gave them a contract that they never should have gotten in the first place,” Beale said.
Bally’s has warned that legalizing video gambling could cost Chicago $74 million in annual revenue and up to 1,050 jobs at its temporary and permanent casinos. The company has also said the move could force Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration to renegotiate “critical elements” of the host agreement, eliminate a yearly $4 million lump sum payment from Bally’s and reduce casino revenue intended for police and fire pension funds.