Most of the work vetting investors and contractors will fall to the Illinois Gaming Board, a state agency that has historically been understaffed and underfunded.
a $1.74 billion gambling and entertainment complex along the Chicago River, the debate about whether Chicago should receive a casino appears to have ended. Nevertheless, questions remain about how public officials and regulators will ensure everyone from the company’s top investors to the subcontractor who paves the parking lot is aboveboard.
“The risks now make what happened in Rosemont seem cute,” said Cramer, who now works for an international investigations firm. “While the Illinois Gaming Board has historically been understaffed and under-resourced under prior successive administrations, the IGB’s dedicated and hardworking civilian and sworn staff of professionals has nonetheless risen to meet the many challenges and mandates of the recent gaming expansion laws ,” Fruchter said in an emailed response to questions.
During the board’s review of the new Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, for instance, investigators discovered an investor who owned the restaurant and convention center that serves as the casino’s temporary location during construction of the permanent facility had failed to disclose a minor 2020 arrest. The casino’s other backers had to buy out the investor’s stake in the project and purchase the restaurant.Some investigations have gone much deeper.
As the casino industry has become big business, dominated by publicly traded companies like Bally’s, mobsters tend to focus their attention securing subcontracts to provide any of the various goods and services that make a casino run, McNamara said.
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