Invading Vegas

What is Invading Vegas?

At that venue, the company’s president and interim chief financial officer, George Papanier, told officials that Bally’s will “deliver the event centre, 100 rooms of the hotel and the required food and beverage components” in early 2027, per the Chicago Sun-Times. That said, the company is reevaluating about 12% of the project’s other planned amenities in response to potential cannibalisation from video gaming terminals. The hotel plan calls for an eventual total of 500 rooms.

The city council legalised VGTs in its latest budget that took effect in January. Mayor Brandon Johnson opposed the move but was overruled by a council majority. Johnson and his colleagues have fought over the issue all year, which is still largely unresolved.

The mayor has not opined this summer, at least publicly, on if he believes Bally’s will open the casino in the first quarter of 2027. However, Johnson indicated in March that his administration is committed to projects such as Bally’s Chicago that foster economic development, while creating new jobs for numerous neighborhoods across the city.

About Invading Vegas

While Station has remained steadfast in its opposition to Culinary, the union has made gains elsewhere in recent years. The entire Las Vegas Strip is now unionised, and Culinary used city-wide strikes as leverage in late 2023 and early 2024 to gain new multi-year labour agreements with the city’s major operators, including Wynn, Caesars and MGM.

Other than Station, Las Vegas Sands had been the other largest non-union holdout in Las Vegas for many years. But when the Venetian-Palazzo was sold to Apollo Global Management in 2021, the firm had no issues with Culinary and ratified the property’s first-ever deal with the union in 2024.

The animosity between the sides has become political over the years. Station is owned and operated by the Fertitta family, who have been prominent Republican donors for many years. Culinary is a largely Democratic organisation that typically supports and endorses left-leaning candidates.

How to play Invading Vegas

The president’s critical view of betting is on par with other candidates. Studies by the Workers’ Party (PT) indicate that three out of four Brazilians are against betting establishments. This is the president’s justification against the sector.

What the president didn’t address is the tax revenue from betting.

In 2025, Brazil collected almost BRL10 billion ($1.97 billion) in tax revenue from the licensed sector. In the first seven months of this year alone, BRL8.7 billion generated by the activity was delivered to public coffers. The Federal Revenue Service itself estimates that the sector should reach BRL16 billion in revenue during 2026.