Horseshoe redeems chips

Wednesday, July 14, 1999 | 11:58 a.m.

Bob Stupak cashed in $250,000 of Binion's Horseshoe gambling chips Monday, just two days before a gaming regulators' hearing on a dispute over the chips.

Stupak is sending a $5,000 check to a colleague of the Rev. Tom Grey to fulfill a promise he made to the anti-gaming activist last fall, when the chip dispute erupted, Grey ally Steve Miller said.

Stupak made the offer to Grey to help publicize his efforts to cash in 50 of the Horseshoe's $5,000 chips after the downtown casino refused to honor them.

The dispute began when Horseshoe owner Becky Binion Behnen declined to accept the chips tendered by Stupak and a handful of other gamblers, though the casino did accept similar chips from others.

The state Gaming Control Board ordered Behnen to honor the chips in March, but she'd declined to do so until Monday. The board had scheduled a hearing on the issue for today.

Stupak's attorney, Jim Jimmerson, presented the chips to Horseshoe attorney John Moran Jr. Monday and received a cashier's check for $250,000.

Stupak is sending a $5,000 check to a Grey associate, the Rev. James Reed of the Union Avenue United Methodist Church in Chicago, Miller said.