First in line was Steven Henry, the Sun-Times reports. He showed up at 6:30 a.m. for first dibs on a "Dancing Drums" slot machine. It took him only 20 minutes to get to the new downtown casino from Austin: "That’s what excites me — it’s close."
"If you see me walking out like this, it means I lost," one woman said, melodramatically slouched over. But there was an early indication of the possible congestion issues posed by the house of chance in the heart of a busy tourist district. Carolyn Williams, the fourth person in line, said she had trouble finding a parking garage open that early and was miffed to learn it wasn’t free.City officials are hoping to win a steady stream of cash from the casino to Chicago’s nearly insolvent police and firefighter pension funds.