As Black Homeowners Reel from Property Tax Shock, Casinos and Lottery See Revenue Surge

As African American homeowners in Chicago’s South and West Side neighborhoods opened property tax bills in November showing increases as high as 133 percent, Illinois casinos and the state lottery reported a surge in revenue—a troubling convergence that reveals how government revenue needs are being met on both ends by the same vulnerable Black communities.

The median residential property tax bill in Chicago jumped 16.7 percent to $4,457—the largest percentage increase in at least 30 years, according to Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas. But the burden fell heaviest on predominantly Black neighborhoods. West Garfield Park, which is 90.7 percent Black, saw tax bills spike nearly $2,000, or 133 percent. North Lawndale, 91.5 percent Black, experienced a 99 percent increase of nearly $1,900. Englewood’s bills climbed 82 percent.

“That’s the part that doesn’t make sense—that the poorest people got the highest increase,” Rev. Marshall Hatch, co-chair of The Leaders Network and senior pastor of New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, told more than 300 outraged residents at an emergency town hall Monday night.

Fifteen South and West Side community areas saw property tax bills rise by more than 30 percent. Meanwhile, downtown commercial properties will pay almost $130 million less this year—an 11.5 percent decrease. Rev. Ira Acree, co-chair of The Leaders Network and senior pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church, added at Tuesday’s meeting, “When homes near Wrigley Field get only a marginal increase and millionaires and billionaires downtown get a 25 percent decrease—something is wrong with that.”

“When the Loop gets a cold, the rest of the city gets pneumonia,” Treasurer Pappas said in her office’s recent report, adding that homeowners across the city are paying the price for downtown’s economic struggles.

The crisis deepened Monday when U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly ruled that Cook County’s tax sale system—which has stripped hundreds of Black homeowners of their equity—violates the Fifth and Eighth Amendments. A 2025 investigation found the initial debt that cost people their homes was collectively $2.3 million, but the homes had a total market value of more than $108 million—a massive transfer of wealth from Black neighborhoods to affluent outside investors.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi called the property tax system “inherently unfair” in a recent statement. When commercial property owners successfully appeal their assessments through the Board of Review, homeowners are forced to pay the difference. “The property tax system favors corporations and does not provide protections for homeowners,” Kaegi said, advocating for legislation to protect homeowners from tax spikes exceeding 25 percent.

Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers Jr., a Kaegi adversary, said in a December news conference that the assessor should issue mass corrections for neighborhoods like North Lawndale and Englewood that saw significant assessment hikes. “Fritz Kaegi, with the stroke of a pen, can correct those valuations by issuing certificates of error,” Rogers said, pointing to prior adjustments Kaegi made during the pandemic and in floodplain areas.

But as Black homeowners face this financial squeeze and are being used as a political football, the same communities are hemorrhaging money through gambling. Illinois’ commercial casinos generated $154.8 million in November 2025, a 1.3 percent year-over-year increase. The state’s lottery pulled in more than $3.6 billion in ticket sales in 2023.

According to a new report, Illinois residents spend $284 per 1,000 people annually on lottery tickets, aligning exactly with the national average of $284. Pulsz.com analyzed the latest 2023 lottery spending data from the US Census to identify which states spend the most on tickets and which provide the best return via prizes. It looked at income from ticket sales, prize payouts, and population figures.

Based on that analysis, Illinois ranks 20th highest in the nation for lottery spending and generates $3,609,258 in ticket sales from a population of 12,710,158. The state offers a prize return rate of 65.52 percent—the 27th highest in the country—returning $2,364,897 in winnings from total ticket sales, the group reported.

The state lottery’s extraction or ties to African American consumers isn’t new. It is the legitimization of a racket that once belonged to Black entrepreneurs. According to Nathan Thompson’s “Kings: The True Story of Chicago’s Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers,” the Jones Brothers transformed policy into a $25 million-a-year empire by 1946, funding Supreme Life Insurance, Provident Hospital, the Negro Baseball League, as well as the first 12 Black CPAs in America. After a bloody mob war, the state seized control.

On July 1, 1974, policy became the Illinois State Lottery and then-State Rep. Harold Washington moved to ensure proceeds extracted from Chicago’s Black neighborhoods would funnel back into underfunded, mostly Black public schools. Today, proceeds stream into the state’s general fund. The top 10 zip codes playing the lottery today are predominantly African American—the same communities that once controlled the game. Now, as Thompson observed, “that money is not finding its way back into Black neighborhoods.”

Zip code 60619, which includes Chatham, Avalon Park and Greater Grand Crossing, has led Illinois in lottery sales for more than two decades, spending $26.8 million annually. These same areas now face crushing property tax increases and steady population loss.

Though “Illinois’ casinos posted a slightly higher November revenue overall, the story is the split between big winners and clear soft spots,” said Alex Murphy, Digital PR Specialist at Casinos.com. “Wind Creek and Hollywood Joliet both jumped more than 50 percent year on year.”

Wind Creek Chicago Southland, which saw revenues jump 52.2 percent, opened November 11, 2024, in East Hazel Crest in the South Suburbs. The $575 million casino at I-80 and Halsted Street is owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. But their most contentious property is Wind Creek Wetumpka, a $246 million casino built on Hickory Ground—the former Muscogee (Creek) Nation capital. After acquiring the sacred site in 1980 with promises to protect it, the Poarch Band bulldozed ancestral graves in 2000 to build the casino. Ceremonial leader George Thompson recalled, “We broke down in tears at the sight of bulldozers and dirt piles where our ancestors once lay in peace.”

Like African Americans, Indigenous peoples’ casino wealth tells no universal story. Tribes with casinos saw an 11 percent decrease in childhood poverty after 1988. But the American Indian poverty rate in 2024 was 19.6 percent, compared to 12.1 percent nationally. Most tribes don’t operate casinos, and most members receive no cash payouts.

Bally’s Chicago, 600 N. Wabash, pulled in just $8.4 million in November 2025, which is down 13.4 percent. Rivers Casino in Des Plaines also fell 13.4 percent. Both draw heavily from Black neighborhoods. The Crusader reached out to officials at the entertainment complex but did not receive a response before deadline.

The American casino industry is dominated by MGM Resorts ($16.16 billion in 2023) and Caesars Entertainment ($11.53 billion). Together, they control 19 of 29 Las Vegas Strip casinos. The late Sheldon Adelson’s widow, Miriam Adelson, is currently worth $27.7 billion—built entirely on casino wealth extracted from working-class gamblers.

The “family-friendly” casino rebrand began in 1989 when Steve Wynn opened The Mirage with tiger shows. But the family entertainment was always a Trojan horse. Behind the magic shows, the industry deployed data analytics to target vulnerable populations. Communities systematically excluded from casino jobs became the primary customer base.

African Americans experience gambling disorders at twice the rate of white Americans—2.2 percent versus 1.1 percent. Paul Street, then vice president for research and planning at the Chicago Urban League, told The Chicago Reporter in 2007 that lotteries are “in essence, a form of regressive taxation that distributes wealth and resources away from those who can least afford to pay.”

According to local news reports, Bally’s Chicago pledged 60 percent minority workforce and 46 percent contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses. However, African Americans remain underrepresented in management. Entry-level casino positions typically pay $15 to $22 per hour, while management ranges from $66,000 to over $130,000 annually.

While casinos and state lottery officials count their blessings, Chicago’s Black community keeps score of its economic wounds.

“Many of you sitting right here could possibly lose your homes, and I can’t stand for that,” 24th Ward Alderwoman Monique Scott told residents at Monday’s town hall on the West Side.

At this week’s Leaders Network meeting at Columbus Park Refectory, Bishop Dwight Gunn of The Heritage International Church and clergy outlined next steps. Cook County 2nd District Commissioner Tara Stamps and Alderman Jason Ervin, who sits on the city’s finance committee, also addressed the crisis.

The community’s demand: a full property tax rollback for affected homeowners; a one-year moratorium on collecting the exorbitant payments; reform of the unconstitutional tax sale system; legislation to cap future increases at 25 percent. Other advocates demanded that gambling revenue, especially from the state lottery, be reinvested in generating zip codes, and that casino advertising spending be proportional to Black media, at a minimum of 13 percent.

If the Illinois Legislature acts, it will most likely be in spring 2026. Kaegi’s office is providing assistance to homeowners who may qualify for unclaimed exemptions. But individual fixes won’t solve the systemic problem.

As Rev. Dr. Hatch emphasized, “Many residents fear this could be their final Christmas or New Year’s in the homes they worked hard to build, cherish, and hope to pass on to their children,” he said. “These dreams have been shattered by political decisions that force everyday homeowners to subsidize the glitz and glamour of downtown.”

The question isn’t whether Black Chicago can survive this double extraction. The question is whether leaders will stop treating Black communities as revenue sources while billionaires like Adelson amass fortunes. As Black homeowners face 133 percent increases and Native Americans endure 19.6 percent poverty despite casino promises, the U.S. gambling industry and municipalities extract billions while investing pennies back into the people who provide the revenue.

Instead of big wins, payoffs and economic engines, African Americans and other underserved communities get rising property taxes, lottery ticket promotions, low-wage casino jobs, underfunded schools, unconstitutional home seizures and broken promises.

It has been said, “The house always wins.” But at whose expense?

Stephanie Gadlin is an award-winning, independent investigative journalist whose work blends historical analysis, data reporting, and cultural commentary. Her work is published in the Crusader and other publications across the country. She specializes in uncovering the intersections of Black culture, public health, environmental justice, systemic racism, public policy and economic inequality in the U.S. and across the African Diaspora. For confidential tips, please contact: [email protected]



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