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Kowals Bar & Grill

Hickory Hills · Cook County · IL · 6 terminals
IGB license 120708223 · Operator: Accel Entertainment Gaming, LLC (as of August 2026)
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High play · lower holdMomentum −14%YoY −27%

Your performance · September 2026

NTI
$26,144
net terminal income · this month
Win per unit
$145
per machine · per day
Terminals
6
machines in service
Annual NTI
$363,723
trailing 12 months

The four numbers operators read first

NTI / machine
$4,357
monthly · per terminal
state median $4,170/mo
52nd pct of 8,629 IL locations
#11 of 19 in Hickory Hills
Hold
6.3%
this month
state median 9.4% · below
9th pct of 8,629 IL locations
5th pct of 19 in Hickory Hills
Cycle rate
2.83×
this month
state median 2.59× · engagement
76th pct of 8,629 IL locations
71st pct of 19 in Hickory Hills
Play / machine
$69.3K
monthly · per terminal
state median $45.5K/mo
69th pct of 8,629 IL locations
53rd pct of 19 in Hickory Hills

Against locations your size (6+ terminals, 6,823 of them), your NTI/machine is −$631/mo vs the $4,988 peer median — bucketing by size keeps a small bar from being measured against a big one.

Where the money goes (September 2026)

NTI this month
$26,144
Gaming tax
−$9,151
After tax
$16,994
Your take-home
$8,497
your 50% this month
Gaming tax$9,151 · 35%Operator's 50%$8,497 · 32%Yours, 50%$8,497 · 32%

Illinois law fixes the after-tax split at 50/50 and bans any deviation (230 ILCS 40/25(c)) — about $8,497 to you and $8,497 to your operator this month. Neither side can move that split. That's the whole point of The Gameset: with the split set by statute, operators compete for your gameset on service — games, cabinets, refresh cadence, response time.

Where your gameset stands

High play · lower hold

Plenty of traffic, but the hold runs below the market — the right game mix could turn that demand into more income.

What an operator sees: An operator sees busy machines with margin headroom — a gameset where better titles and merchandising pay off.

NTI/machine — 52nd percentile of 8,629 Illinois locations this month
In Hickory Hills — #11 of 19 locations by NTI/machine (your own neighborhood, the fairest like-for-like)
Among locations your size (6+ terminals) — 44th percentile of 6,823
Your gameset — you among your Hickory Hills peers18 peer locations
play per machine →
your gameset a Hickory Hills peer (anonymized) statewide median

1 peer location sits beyond the axis range and is drawn at the edge — shown, never dropped.

Each gray dot is another Hickory Hills gameset for the same month, shown without identity. The dashed lines are the statewide medians — which quadrant you land in is the positioning above, drawn out.

Trend

Net terminal income by monthpeak $55,325
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
latest month up vs prior down vs prior Hickory Hills median ($29,763)
Cycle rate by monthlatest 2.83× · state median 2.59×
your cycle rate state median

Cycle rate is a leading indicator: when players start cycling their money fewer times, it usually shows up here before it shows up in NTI — an early read on gameset health for you and for an operator.

Win per unit by monthlatest $145 · Hickory Hills median $165
your WPU (per machine, per day) Hickory Hills median WPU
Hold % by monthlatest 6.3% · state median 9.4%
your hold state median hold

These are the two series a service change shows up in. Fresher titles and faster response tend to move win per unit first; hold follows the game mix. Both are your own numbers against a neutral market line — not a verdict on anyone.

This year against last, by monthSeptember 2026 down 27% on a year earlier
October 2025 – September 2026October 2024 – September 2025

A month that looks like a collapse is often just that month. Laid over the same months a year earlier, a seasonal dip and a real decline stop looking alike.

Seasonality check: August → September moved −5% this year vs +29% a year ago — so a normal seasonal dip isn't mistaken for a real decline.

Your town's market

Hickory Hills's total gaming income is +1% year over year (trailing 3 months vs the same 3 a year ago).

Your own gameset is −27% over the same-month-last-year comparison — the town's tide explains part of the move; it isn't all your gameset.

A deeper operator read

The same history, cut the way a Terminal Operator cuts it when they decide how hard to compete for your gameset.

Win per unit (WPU)
$145/day
per machine · per day · Hickory Hills median $165/day · −12%
At the Hickory Hills median this gameset would add roughly $43,428 a year.
WPU momentum
−20%
last 3 months $143/day vs prior 3 $178/day
Seasonality
May peak
strongest May ($38,255 avg) · softest January ($24,893 avg)
Revenue steadiness
variable
±16% month-to-month swing, trailing 12

Your operator

Accel Entertainment Gaming, LLC

Linked to your Location as of August 2026 — the Illinois Gaming Board publishes this each month, so a recent change may not show yet.

Locations
2,679
Avg NTI / Location
$28,734
Avg NTI / Terminal
$4,975
Total NTI
$76,978,768

Year over year

Your NTI is +8% up year over year, outpacing the Cook County market (+5%).

Your Location
+8%
$363,723 vs $335,563 (last 12 months vs the prior 12)
The market (Cook County)
+5%
typical Location: $42,751 vs $40,728

Takeaways

•Each terminal earned about $4,357 in September 2026 — the 52nd percentile of 8,629 Illinois locations that month. Per-terminal NTI is the number operators judge a gameset by, because it strips out how many machines you run.
•Within Hickory Hills, that's #11 of 19 locations by per-terminal earnings — the fairest like-for-like, since neighbors share the same foot traffic and economy.
•Hold — the share of money played that the gameset keeps — was 6.3% — below the 9.4% state median, which a stronger game mix could recover. Hold is driven mostly by the games in the gameset, which is exactly what an operator brings to the table.
•A dollar cycled through your machines 2.83× before leaving — higher means longer, more engaged sessions. When the cycle rate starts falling it usually shows up before NTI does, so it's an early read on gameset health for both sides.
•High play · lower hold — Plenty of traffic, but the hold runs below the market — the right game mix could turn that demand into more income.
•After $9,151 in gaming tax, September 2026's income is split 50/50 with your operator by law (230 ILCS 40/25(c)) — about $8,497 to you. Neither side can move that split, which is why operators here compete on service.
•Recent momentum is softening — −14% against your trailing average.
•Terminal Operator Accel Entertainment Gaming, LLC runs 2679 Locations in our data.
There's headroom in these numbers.

Operators bid on what they'd put in your gameset — newer cabinets, better titles, faster fixes. We'll turn your profile into an anonymized Listing they compete on.

Create your Listing
Full September 2026 report detail
Amount played
$415,585
Amount won
$389,440
Net wager
$26,144
Funds in
$146,850
Funds out
$120,706
Net terminal income
$26,144
NTI tax
$9,151
State share
$7,842
Municipality share
$1,309

Source: Illinois Gaming Board monthly video gaming reports. This is public data about your own licensed Location, shown for informational purposes.