Hollywood Casino-Aurora

Location: Aurora
Year opened: 1993
Employees: 889
Visitors in 2005: 1.5 million
2005 total Illinois tax revenue generated: $87.8 million
2005 local share of tax revenue: $13.6 million

The local share of tax money from the Hollywood Casino-Aurora has funded:

• The building of Aurora's first public library
  
• Renovations to the Aurora Regional Fire Museum
  
• Renovations to Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall
  
• Improvements to Phillips Park Zoo
  
• Repairs to city curbs, sidewalks, and sewers
  
• Flood-control projects totaling $1.8 million
  
• $1.6 million in grants to local organizations and social service agencies, including two alternative high schools

Hollywood Casino-Aurora's charitable donations to the community include:

• Casino Employee Helping Hand Food Drive Casino employees from across Illinois participated in this annual food drive. As a result of the casino employees' efforts over 56,000 non-perishable food items were collected for local food pantries.

"Riverboat gaming in Aurora has accomplished just what the state legislature intended. Hollywood Casino-Aurora brings hundreds of thousands of people to downtown Aurora. The local share of the gaming tax allows us to do significant capital improvements projects throughout the city that we could not otherwise afford."
-Aurora Mayor David L. Stover  

For more information on the Hollywood Casino-Aurora, visit www.hollywoodcasinoaurora.com.