Sep 04, 2015 The Illinois Gaming Board has imposed one of the highest fines in the history of the state’s casino industry on the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. The casino’s parent company was hit with a $2 million fine for failing to comply with internal security procedures as stipulated by the gaming board. When Illinois Gaming Board administrators awarded the state's 10th Casino license in December, one of the reasons they didn't give it to a Waukegan company was because an investor in the Lake County company still had financial ties to indicted businessman William Cellini, the board said in a written statement.
The Illinois Gaming Board has imposed one of the highest fines in the history of the state’s casino industry on the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. The casino’s parent company was hit with a $2 million fine for failing to comply with internal security procedures as stipulated by the gaming board. The Rivers Casino is Illinois largest and most popular casino, was investigated by the NBC5 Investigates team and Better Government Association.
The investigation revealed that the casino had deliberately broken set procedures in hiring a maintenance and security vendor and was not very strict in following gaming promotions in the casino. Gaming board investigators also questioned the relationship that Rivers casino had with the mega cleaning company United Maintenance and its parent company United Service companies.
The owners of United have been suspected in the past of having ties to organized crime and the Illinois gaming board has made it very clear from the start that it does not want any of its casinos to have relationships with vendors or individuals who have any criminal associations.
Investigators also reported that before the Rivers Casino could open, its then Vice President of Human Resources, Merrick Dresnin recommended United as a service provider and that was one of the reasons why the company entered in a partnership. Dresnin has since left the
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Rivers Casino and now serves as the Vice President of Human Resources for United Service. Investigators highlighted these inconsistencies during the month of May 2015 and the Rivers Casino took prompt action by severing their relationship with United Service. In a statement, David Patent, the casino company’s president said
Out of an abundance of caution, we terminated our relationship with United, and since then we have been fully cooperating with the Illinois Gaming board in their investigation. We self-reported to the Illinois Gaming Board that there might be an issue.
The hefty fine of $2 million was imposed by the state gaming board to send a clear message to other casinos in the state about the penalties for now adhering to the rules set in place. Investigators also found that the Rivers casino had run 5 promotions without getting state approval and the promotions did not follow set regulations. One of the instances cited include a promotion that had a $250,000 “sign up and win” draw which was reportedly closed after the deadline had passed but the casino still allowed 6 patrons to register and take part. The Rivers casino had promised to extend full cooperation to investigators to ensure that they are given a clean chit.
A developer who’s planning on offering casino gaming in Chicago-area strip malls is suing the Illinois Gaming Board for exceeding its legal authority by denying video gambling licenses. The lawsuit contends that the gaming board was influenced by lobbying campaigns and local video gaming businesses to deny licensing to two Hometown Plaza LLC video gambling cafes.
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The cafes in question, Bella’s and Gigi’s, write that on Sept. 22nd, “in a complete about-face from its prior treatment of numerous identical applications,” the Illinois Gaming Board voted to reject their applications for video gambling licenses.
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Hometown is a suburb of Chicago, where gambling competition has heated up in recent years. And the video gambling cafes are supposed to be located on Southwest Highway, south of 87th Street in Hometown. However, without licenses, it doesn’t look like this plan will happen now.
“This decision was not based on the merits of the individual applications,” the lawsuit explains. “Rather, bowing to political pressure and the negative publicity campaign generated by groups hoping to avoid competition, the Board openly admitted it was denying the applications collectively based on a brand new policy – purportedly based on the ‘spirit’ of the Video Gaming Act – prohibited what it called ‘video gaming malls.'”
The Chicago Tribune reports that the developers also have plans to open video gambling cafes in another suburb called Crestwood. These “casino malls” would be independently owned and operated in the same strip malls while maintaining separate entrances from each other. However, the Illinois Gaming Board ultimately labeled these as “backdoor casinos” and said that they would violate the Riverboat Gambling Act and Video Gaming Act.
Illinois Gaming Board members who are named as defendants include chairman Donald Tracy, board members Hector Alejandre, Thomas A. Dunn, and Lee A. Gould, and Mark Ostrowski, gaming board administrator.
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Bella’s and Gigi’s are adamant that these figureheads made a biased decision after listening to lobbyists from local competitors. The lawsuit presents the following comments:
“Not coincidentally, a few weeks later, September 17, 2015, State Representative Bob Rita (D-Blue Island), a figure long associated with casino interests, introduced a House Resolution in the Illinois House of Representatives stating that, in approving legal video gaming, the Illinois General Assembly, ‘did not envision allowing’ and ‘is not interested in seeing’ what it termed ‘casino malls’.” That resolution was first reported in the Daily Southtown.”
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If the lawsuit is successful, it could reverse the Illinois Gaming Board’s decision on not licensing the Hometown video gambling cafes. However, for the time being, the decision will stand.