Bally’s Departure From Pennsylvania Casino Reflects Its Priorities In Vegas And Chicago

Things can change quickly in the U.S. gambling landscape.

Case in point: On July 31, George Papanier, president of Bally’s Corporation, said during the company’s Q2 earnings call that “we’re now focused” on getting the necessary approvals to start construction on its Nittany Mall casino in the first half of 2025.

“We are now going through the whole developmental underwriting process and how we plan for that,” he said at the time.

Now, less than two months later, Bally’s has pulled out of the Nittany Mall project in College Township, Pennsylvania. As a result of leaving the joint venture it started three years ago with SC Gaming (which will continue the casino project without Bally’s), Deutsche Bank analysts peg Bally’s savings at around $120 million, according to the Sept. 16. Earnings+More newsletter.

In a release announcing the decision, Bally’s said its “corporate strategic priorities have shifted elsewhere, prompting the company to exercise its option to end the relationship.”

This statement comes, again, less than two months after Bally’s CEO Robeson Reeves said during the Q2 call that he didn’t think “there’s anything that’s non-core within our strategy” that was currently on their docket.

Clearly, that’s no longer the case.

So … what does all this really mean?

More bandwidth for bigger projects

This could be a sign of Standard General levying its influence on the direction Bally’s takes — and choosing to focus on two much more substantial projects.

In the days leading up to the Q2 earnings call, Bally’s was bought out by its largest shareholder, Standard General. In an interview with The Nevada Independent, Standard General and Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim said the stock agreement between the two entities would help Bally’s in “capturing the potential of the Tropicana redevelopment and [the] ballpark.”

Kim is alluding to what Bally’s plans to do on the 36-acre site where the Las Vegas A’s are building their new baseball stadium. No mention of Nittany Mall.

Also in July, Truist Securities gaming analyst Barry Jonas wrote in a research note, per The Nevada Independent, that Bally’s had two significant opportunities in front of it in whatever it does with Las Vegas A’s stadium site and its Chicago casino (which we’ll get to later).

Again, no mention of the Nittany Mall project.

Evaluating development options

Bally’s has not yet unveiled any specific plans for a casino next to the Las Vegas A’s stadium. Bally’s is leasing the 36 acres — the site of Tropicana Casino, which will be imploded in October — from Gaming & Leisure Properties for $10.5 million a year. The A’s will use nine acres for the stadium, and speculation is rampant that Bally’s will build a casino resort next to the ballpark.

But Papanier was about as vague as he could be in the Q2 call.

“Demolition of the Tropicana is underway, and we are planning to bring the hotel tower down in October. This work is on track to allow the A’s to begin their stadium development next year ahead of their relocation to Las Vegas for the 2028 Major League Baseball season,” Papanier said. “At the same time, we continue to evaluate development options for the remainder of the 36 acres and remain optimistic about the possibilities for this site.”

Bally’s is heavily involved in another project, though, for which we do have specifics.

Tough sledding in Chicago

Bally’s is building a $1.7 billion casino in Chicago’s River West neighborhood that it plans to have done in the second half of 2026. In July, it secured $940 million in funding to officially start the construction process and set a demolition date for the printing press the casino will replace along the river. Bally’s is partnering with GLP, which will provide Bally’s with $2.07 billion. GLP will buy, finance, and own the land for the casino, and it will lease it to Bally’s.

It will be a giant casino resort complex, with a 500-room, 34-story hotel next to the casino with 3,300 slots and more than 170 table games. There will also be a 3,000-seat theater, six restaurants, a food hall, and a 2-acre public park.

In his July research note, Jonas wrote that the funding and development for the Bally’s Chicago casino could provide a model for how it chooses to go about a potential A’s stadium casino project in Las Vegas.

For now, Bally’s is operating a temporary Chicago casino out of the Medinah Temple Building. Revenues for the temporary casino, which opened in December 2023, have fallen short of expectations. It cost Bally’s $135 million in upfront fees alone to the Illinois Gaming Board to get up and running.

Through its first four months, for instance, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot projected the temporary casino would produce $12.8 million in tax revenue. In reality, it produced only $3.1 million.

In the Q2 call, though, executives pointed to growing attendance and customer base figures as encouraging signs.

Papanier said the temporary casino eclipsed 120,000 visitors in June and that it had drawn more than 1 million visitors overall as of late July.

“Our focus really is on continuing to motivate database growth,” he said. “You just look at how we perform in Q2 versus Q4. We’ve grown GDR 40 percent in Q2 versus Q4, so we continue to build momentum there. It’s just taking a little bit longer to ramp that property. For over 100,000 people in the database, that’s actually 100 percent growth since Q4. So, again, our focus and our priorities continue to grow that database as we continue to work our way towards the opening of our permanent facilities.”