Video Gaming in Chicago's 41st Ward — bars, licensing, status

History

German farmers staked claims near the Chicago River in the 1830s, in what became Edison Park, and English farmers settled the Norwood Park area in the same decade. A railroad arrived in the early 1850s. In 1868 a land company laid out Norwood Park as a curving, resort-style subdivision with a hotel and an artificial lake. The village incorporated in 1874, prohibited the sale of liquor, and was annexed to Chicago in 1893. Edison Park organized as a village in 1896, and residents decided to annex to Chicago in 1910 so their children could reach Carl Schurz High School by rail. After World War I a building boom put up bungalows and Dutch colonials there, and the population reached 5,370 by 1930.

The airport came later. In 1944 the city engineer designated a wartime Douglas Aircraft plant on the outskirts of the Northwest Side for use as a commercial airport. Domestic flights began on a small scale in 1955, and the finished O'Hare was dedicated on March 23, 1963. The Kennedy Expressway cut through Norwood Park in the 1950s, and rapid transit reached the airport in 1984.

The area today

Ald. Anthony V. Napolitano represents the 41st Ward from a ward office at 7231 W. Touhy Ave. The alderperson won the 2015 runoff with 51.6 percent of the vote. On March 12, 2026, the City Council's License and Consumer Protection Committee, which includes Napolitano, voted to reject two ordinances that would have banned video gambling in six other wards, WTTW News reported.

The ward runs through the O'Hare area, Norwood Park and Edison Park, and Block Club Chicago also places Oriole Park in it. The CTA Blue Line connects O'Hare with Forest Park, and its Cumberland station is at 5800 N. Cumberland Ave. Metra's Union Pacific Northwest Line stops at Norwood Park and Edison Park. The Park District's Norwood Park has the only outdoor pool on the North Side with a water slide, and the Edison Park fieldhouse occupies the former Ebinger School.

Bars and restaurants here

Retail and service businesses line Northwest Highway through Norwood Park, and downtown Edison Park runs along it too. When a four-story condo building was proposed in downtown Edison Park in April 2026, Block Club Chicago reported that all the surrounding buildings were two stories. In 2021 a restaurateur planning a move to Norwood Park told Block Club Chicago the neighborhood had seen "nothing but pubs and taverns" until then. The ward is home to many firefighters and police officers, Block Club Chicago has reported.