While gambling would bring more people downtown, there is disagreement over the benefits to hotels, restaurants and other businessesIn Chicago's full-court press for a casino, boosters insist such a development would do much more than help plug immense city and state budget deficits.

Inhospitable economy stalls new projects, closes others Not even Des Plaines, the future home of the state's 10 t h and final casino, has been spared from the slump devastating the hotel industry.