Arlington Heights approves zoning change to allow sports betting near potential Bears stadium

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The town remains stately. It's no wonder George Washington liked it so much. Zac Brown, a new sort of revolutionary, played the Performing Arts Center last week. Phish has a two-nighter next weekend. Saratoga -- the legacied race track -- still stands as the region's signature landmark. For seven weeks or so every summer…

A well-known building that for more than 30 years served as the venue for countless high school reunions, banquets, dinners, poker games, and as an Off Track Betting parlor, will be one of the many buildings that will be demolished at the former Arlington Park racetrack site at Euclid Avenue and New Wilke Road. Interior demolition of the former…

Casual horse racing fans watching Saturday's Kentucky Derby might download a phone app to bet on the nation's marquee race while they watch the nationally televised broadcast. A few others may stop into their local off-track betting parlor to lay down a wager. But for a group of local horseplayers, the back patio at a Prospect Heights sports…

A team of investors called Greenway Entertainment wants to bring some competition to Hawthorne Race Course in the south suburbs. Greenway is targeting Richton Park with a proposal to build a horse racing track and casino, and Illinois lawmakers have started opening a path that could move the project forward, the Chicago Tribune reported. The site…

AS A GENERAL RULE, autopsy reports are not recommended reading for the "Headspace"/meditation crowd. And some might say that Patti Davis did not produce merely a summary of institutional death posted on the respected "Paulick Report" thoroughbred racing website this week. But the Chicago-based writer, editor and PR adjunct did craft the most…

With the Chicago Bears nearing the red zone to score a new stadium deal in Arlington Heights, residential real estate sellers and agents in the northwest suburb are hitting some extra points. A recent analysis of housing prices in the northwest suburb found that even the idea of the NFL team moving to the area has been driving up median sale prices…

Illinois sports bettors have set a new record this fall, as the state reported wagers exceeding $1 billion in one month for the first time in history in October. The $1.03 billion handle - up 24% from September's total - has led to $16.4 million in state and local tax revenues. Lifetime gambling taxes have generated nearly $204 million. In addition…

I say "soccer." My European friends say "fútbol." Whether it's soccer or fútbol, no one will be saying "Chicago Bears." It will be the "Arlington Heights Bears." Good riddance, I say. The Bears are history, at least as far as the "Chicago" is concerned. In September 2021, the team inked an agreement to purchase Arlington International Racecourse in…

Arlington Heights trustees took a step forward last week in the process of allowing the Chicago Bears to proceed with their plans for a redevelopment of Arlington International Racecourse by approving a zoning change that would allow the operation of a sports betting facility in the area. This facility is part of the Bears' $5 billion proposal to…

Arlington Heights trustees laid another piece of groundwork Monday that would allow the Chicago Bears to proceed with their plans for a massive redevelopment of Arlington International Racecourse by approving a zoning change that would allow a sports betting facility in the area. A sports betting facility is part of the Bears' $5 billion proposal…

The Arlington Heights Plan Commission agreed Wednesday night to recommend that the Village Board approve amending the zoning for the Arlington International Racecourse site to allow for a sports betting facility there - as long as it's part of a professional sports stadium. The move comes after the Chicago Bears football team in 2021 signed a…

An Arlington Heights panel Wednesday endorsed the prospect of a sportsbook as part of the Chicago Bears' proposed $5 billion redevelopment of Arlington Park. The plan commission voted 7-0 to recommend to the village board that it make changes to the shuttered racetrack's overlay zoning district that would list a sports wagering facility as a…

Headline writers were bold, and perhaps prophetic, in the all-caps type across three columns of the front page of the Oct. 14, 1927, Arlington Heights Herald: "America's Greatest Race Course Open." The account of the inaugural meeting at Arlington Park the day before -- bylined by T.C. Hart -- was equally prescient in describing what the grand…

Bettors were able to place wagers on horses for nearly a century at Arlington Park. Should the Chicago Bears redevelopment there come to fruition, fans may be able to put down money on football games and a whole host of other sports too. A lower-level appointed Arlington Heights panel Wednesday night made that a distinct possibility by recommending…

If you can't bet at the track, you can't bet off it, either. That's where a divided state panel landed Thursday in shooting down a controversial request from the corporate owner of Arlington International Racecourse, which wanted to keep operating its off-track betting parlors even though they've cashed out of the Illinois horse racing game with a…

Illinois racing officials are challenging a request to allow off-track betting by Arlington International Racecourse, even though it is not licensed for racing next year, as the statute appears to require. Hawthorne Race Course officials proposed that they could instead take over the parlors, which allow gamblers to bet remotely on races around the…

Illinois racing officials are challenging a request to allow off-track betting by Arlington International Racecourse, even though it is not licensed for racing next year, as the statute appears to require. Hawthorne Race Course officials proposed that they could instead take over the parlors, which allow gamblers to bet remotely on races around the…

We may have to dust off the old Paulick Report Chutzpah Award in the wake of Arlington Park executive Tony Petrillo's gaslighting of the Illinois Racing Board. Appearing via video before the regulatory agency during a regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Nov. 18. Petrillo lobbied to keep Arlington Park's diminishing number of OTBs operating in…

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (WLS) -- As thousands of horse racing fans head home from Arlington Park Saturday night, some might have a touch more cash in their pockets, while others might not be so lucky. Regardless, everyone at the track on the picturesque fall day does share something in common. They were there when the sun set on Arlington…

Jockey Jareth Loveberry jumped at the chance to race at Arlington International Racecourse. He moved his family from Michigan to Glen Ellyn to be nearby, and became the winningest jockey on the track for the past two years. Now, with the track expected to close, he doesn't know where he will go. Having just recovered from a concussion and bruised…

Roy Arnold, who served as president and CEO of Arlington Park from 2006-10, announced his intention on behalf of a group of investors to purchase the Arlington Heights, Ill., racetrack in a letter to the village's board of trustees prior to their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday night at which Arlington's future was on the agenda. Arnold, who…

Somehow, Arlington Park survived the inferno in 1985 that reduced one of America's revered horse racing venues to 21000 tons of blackened rubble. Just three weeks later, hastily constructed bleachers and betting operations welcomed the running of the annual Arlington Million. By 1989, a rebuilt and renamed Arlington International Racecourse had…

The parent company of Arlington International Racecourse has less than a week to prove to a state panel that it's committed to racing at the Arlington Heights track beyond 2021, or risk losing racing for 2020. That's the latest posture being taken by members of the Illinois Racing Board, who in the coming days plan to press track owner Churchill…

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (CBS) -- The Arlington International Racecourse is not applying for a gaming license - and it could even move somewhere else. The reason has everything to do with taxes. The racetrack in Arlington Heights is home to the Arlington Million Race. Churchill Downs owns it, and says the taxes in the new Illinois gaming law are…