Mall‑rats of Chicago’s western suburbs still get misty‑eyed over Aladdin’s Castle #203, Yorktown Shopping Center — one of Bally’s Illinois flagships. Opened circa 1975 between Sears and the food court, Store #203 funneled thousands of teens through its mirrored entrance until the chain’s wind‑down in the late 1990s.
Former attendants on Reddit recall neon‑green vests, five‑for‑a‑buck tokens, and turning machines to free‑play during birthday parties. Today an archived Yelp page preserves the mall address and phone line, frozen in amber; the physical space is now a shoe retailer, though the lattice‑arched doorway outline is still faintly visible if you know where to look.