Penn Entertainment’s new Illinois casino, Hollywood, made $17.4 million in revenue in its first month of operation.
The casino in Aurora is built on a 77,000-square-meter plot in the north of the city near Interstate 88. It features over 50 live table games.
Unlike its floating riverboat predecessor, the Hollywood has a hotel. And this, says Penn, is helping drive up spending among wealthy patrons.
“We are seeing really strong demand from VIP segment customers,” said the Penn CEO and President Jay Snowden during a quarterly earnings call. “We’re seeing much higher play when they visit us now because they’re staying in the hotel. We’re seeing an uplift of over 20% when they stay in the hotel from what their worth was previously at the old facility.”
Since opening at the end of June, the casino has already welcomed 156,000 visitors, per the Illinois Gaming Board, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.
Illinois Hollywood Casino Aurora: GGR Doubles in One Month
Snowden added that business at Hollywood has “almost essentially doubled in the first full month.”
He predicted a slight slowdown in the weeks ahead, saying “things will settle.”
“You get some benefit of everybody coming to see the property in that first month,” the Penn CEO said. “We are very pleased with what the response has been. And the feedback we’re getting is very positive.”
The Illinois Gaming Board’s data shows the Hollywood is already the Prairie State’s third biggest-earning casino.
The riverboat, by contrast, ranked ninth in the first half of 2026.
The state is home to 17 casinos.
The Wind Creek Chicago Southland pipped Hollywood to the state’s second slot, with July gross gaming revenues of $18.8 million.
However, Hollywood has a long way to go if it is to displace the first-place Rivers Casino Des Plaines, with its July receipt haul of more than $44 million.
Illinois Casino Earnings on the Rise
The board’s data shows Hollywood picked a timely moment to open. Illinois gaming revenues are booming, with the state’s casinos experiencing a 23.3% year-on-year rise in receipts to the $167.5 million mark.
The riverboat casino first opened its doors to downtown Aurora punters in 1993, but is dwarfed by its successor.
The $360 million Hollywood boasts over 1,000 slot machines, sports betting facilities, restaurants, a spa, and a 1,115 square-meter events center.
Penn said in June that the riverboat would be turned over to Aurora city officials for redevelopment.
While land-based casino betting gathers momentum in Illinois, sports betting figures have fallen in recent months.
A plethora of top sporting action in May – including the Kentucky Derby, the NBA Playoffs, and the PGA Championship – failed to inspire bettors, with wagers falling over 10% year-on-year.
Horse racing has also fizzled out in the state, five years after the iconic Arlington Park track closed its doors.
The NFL’s Chicago Bears bought the track in 2023, with plans to turn the site into a new stadium by 2029.
