🚨 FLASHBACK: I called it. Bally's River North would fail. Lightfoot called me "full of crap."
— Reporter William J. Kelly #thatreporter (@Williamjkelly) July 9, 2026
I stood up and asked her the question Chicago deserved answered. Why ram through a casino most of the neighborhood didn't even want? Why promise it would revive tourism and conventions… pic.twitter.com/g9HO7tiJBm
FLASHBACK: I called it. Bally's River North would fail. Lightfoot called me "full of crap."
I stood up and asked her the question Chicago deserved answered. Why ram through a casino most of the neighborhood didn't even want? Why promise it would revive tourism and conventions when violent crime — not the lack of a casino — was keeping people away?
She had no answer. So she attacked. Called my questions "lies." Snapped "you're full of crap" on camera. Threatened to have police drag me out of her own press conference. And on camera, her press secretary called me "an animal."
Bally's has failed to meet expectations since the day it opened. It just skipped its own earnings call. It couldn't deliver the jobs, the revenue, or the "revival" Lightfoot sold Chicago on.
So what did Bally's do? Hired Lightfoot's law firm. To sue the city. Over legal video gambling terminals — because Bally's can't compete without a monopoly.
And Johnson? He's not fixing Lightfoot's failure. He's protecting it. Pushing to repeal that same legalization to hand Bally's the exclusivity it never earned. He still doesn't have the votes.
A failing casino. Two mayors covering for it. And Chicagoans still waiting on the answers they tried to shut down. What a pair - Johnson and Lightfoot.
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