Wind Creek Hospitality, the gaming arm of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, is one of four finalists in bidding for the rights to open a casino in the southern suburbs of Chicago.
Wind Creek proposes to build a $300 million, 64,000-square-foot casino that includes an entertainment center, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune. A second phase would include a 21-story hotel.
The bids are the result of a new Illinois law that expanded gambling across the state, including the south Chicago suburbs.
October 28 was the deadline for submitting proposals to the Illinois Gaming Board, which now has up to a year to consider the bids.
The Wind Creek proposal is for a site in the villages of East Hazel Crest and Homewood. Three other bidders, including The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, have aligned with other suburban villages for their sites. A total of six townships would share in revenues of the winning casino when it begins operations.
In October, Wind Creek held a grand reopening of its redesigned casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, five months after the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approved the sale of Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem to Wind Creek Hospitality for $1.3 billion.
Wind Creek casinos are now spread from Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka, in Alabama, to Pennsylvania, Nevada and the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curacao.
