(CHICAGO, IL) – Bally’s Chicago Casino is proud to announce it won a 2024 Torch Award for Ethics from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Chicago and Northern Illinois. The award recognizes Bally’s Chicago’s commitment to fair, honest and ethical business practices.
“It is an honor for Bally’s Chicago Casino to be recognized by the Better Business Bureau as an organization that exemplifies excellent business ethics in our very first year of operations in Chicago,” said George Papanier, President of Bally’s Corporation.
The BBB’s Torch Award honors companies that demonstrate the highest level of ethical standards and trust with customers, business partners, shareholders and the communities in which they do business. This year, the award was presented to only seven businesses in the Chicago region. An independent panel of reviewers assessed applicants in four areas: character, culture, customer and community.
Bally’s Chicago Casino earned the Torch Award for Ethics in the “500-1,499 employees” category by demonstrating how it operates with integrity, care and trustworthiness.
Since the September 2023 opening of the temporary casino at the Medinah Temple in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, Bally’s Chicago Casino has welcomed over 1.4 million visitors, trained more than 200 students in its dealer school, hosted job and vendor fairs, and contributed to the community through charitable giving and volunteerism.
Bally’s Chicago Casino has also largely exceeded hiring goals at the temporary casino:
- Total jobs: 655 (91% full-time)
- Minority: 535 (82% - exceeds 60% target)
- Women: 309 (47% - exceeds 45% target)
- Veterans: 12 (2% - below 5% target)
- Persons with disabilities: 59 (9% - exceeds 5% target)
- Chicago residents: 460 (70% - exceeds 50% target)
Bally’s Chicago Casino has also built strong relationships with its vendors and partners, including those involved in the demolition and construction of the future casino, hotel and entertainment destination on the former site of the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center.
Since opening its temporary location at the Medinah Temple in Chicago’s River North neighborhood in September 2023, Bally’s Chicago Casino has organized community engagement events, worked with workforce development organizations, hosted vendor fairs – including a diversity vendor fair – and begun demolition in preparation for a Fall 2026 opening.
“This recognition would not be possible without the dedication of our entire team and our collective commitment to our Bally’s values,” said Papanier.
With Bally's Chicago Casino's latest recognition from BBB Chicago and the Northern Illinois 2024 Torch awards, Bally's Corporation has been recognized as a premier operator, with nearly 200 industry related awards and 80 first place wins across 13 properties! As Bally’s Chicago Casino continues to set the standard of excellence, two of those awards were granted to Bally’s Chicago Casino for “Best of Slots 2024” by Strictly Slots magazine, and the 2024 “Best Casino in Chicagoland” by Casino Player Magazine.
To read more on Bally’s Chicago Casino recognition as a BBB Chicago and Northern Illinois 2024 Torch Award for Ethics recipient, please visit www.bbb.org/chicago-torch-awards
About Bally’s Corporation
Bally’s Corporation is a global casino-entertainment company with a growing omni-channel presence. It currently owns and manages 15 casinos across 10 states, a golf course in New York, a horse racetrack in Colorado, and has access to OSB licenses in 18 states. It also owns Bally’s Interactive International, formerly Gamesys Group, a leading, global, interactive gaming operator, Bally Bet, a first-in-class sports betting platform, and Bally Casino, a growing iCasino platform.
With 10,600 employees, the Company’s casino operations include approximately 15,300 slot machines, 580 table games and 3,800 hotel rooms. Bally’s also has rights to developable land in Las Vegas post the closure of the Tropicana.
Upon completion of the announced merger with The Queen Casino & Entertainment Inc. (“Queen”) the above portfolio are expected to be supplemented with four additional casinos across three states, one of which will be an additional state that expands Bally’s jurisdiction of operations to include the state of Iowa. Queen will also add over 900 employees, and operations that currently include approximately 2,400 slot machines, 50 table games and 150 hotel rooms to the Bally’s portfolio. Bally’s will also become the successor of Queen’s significant economic stake in a global lottery management and services business through its investment in Intralot S.A. (ATSE: INLOT).
