“With critical votes this evening, the Illinois state legislature has passed a bill that makes the possibility of a financially viable Chicago casino a reality.  This moment is decades in the making, and represents a critical step toward shoring up our city’s pension obligations, as well as driving huge levels of infrastructure funding and fueling thousands of new jobs for all of Illinois. We are grateful to many lawmakers in both chambers, especially Illinois House Representatives Bob Rita, Jay Hoffman and Kelly Cassidy and State Senators Bill Cunningham and Kim Lightford, in addition to the leadership in both houses - Speaker Madigan, President Harmon, Leaders Durkin and Brady in particular - who were instrumental in the passage of this important legislation.  Additional thanks are due to our partners in organized labor, particularly the Chicago Federation of Labor, and its President, Bob Reiter. Thank you to members of the Chicago City Council.  And thank you to our fellow mayors, the restaurant and hospitality industries, and of course to the Governor for his dogged and public support of the bill, and we look forward to him signing this bill into law in the near future."

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