Right: renderings show what a Bally's casino planned for Tribune Freedom Center site would look like along the banks of the Chicago River North Branch at Chicago Avenue. Right: Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces Bally's as the winning casino bidder during an event on Thursday. [City of Chicago]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday confirmed rumors that have swirled all week suggesting that she would pick Rhode Island-based Bally’s proposal to build and manage a Chicago casino at the Tribune’s Freedom Center in River West. The announcement marks a major leap forward in the city’s decades-long search for gambling revenue but likely kicks off an uphill battle with neighbors and some aldermen as power shifts to the City Council.