The major hurdle for this was the Speaker of the Illinois House. However,
it sounds like he's softening on that. The Senate and the Governor are indeed on board, but the Speaker said he wants public hearings and he's in "no rush" to schedule them. I would put the chance of getting new casino licenses this year at around 30%. It would be one land based casino downtown and two more boats in the suburbs.
As for space downtown, a recall off-hand talk about putting a temporary casino in existing buildings like Navy Pier.