Illinois board stays mum on casino deal

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

CHICAGO -- Illinois Gaming Board members refused to discuss reports of a Rosemont casino settlement Tuesday, even as gambling opponents accused them of bowing to special interests and keeping the public in the dark about a deal.

"I want to assure the public and the media that when the board takes action on the Emerald casino license it will be done in a public session," Gaming Board Chairman Gregory Jones said at the opening of the board's monthly meeting. He then said members had agreed not to speak publicly on the matter because it was in litigation.

Jones' comments came after reports in the Las Vegas Sun and Chicago newspapers that Gaming Board Administrator Philip Parenti may have worked out a deal that would let Las Vegas casino giant MGM MIRAGE take over Emerald's defunct license.

Parenti declined comment on the reports after Tuesday's meeting. An Emerald attorney and executive did not return calls.

MGM officials have said they are interested in the Chicago area but would hold off negotiations with Emerald until that company had resolved its differences with the Gaming Board.

Talk of a possible deal comes almost a year after the board voted 4-1 to reject Emerald's bid to build a riverboat casino in Rosemont, a Chicago suburb near O'Hare International Airport.

The board administrator at the time, Sergio Acosta, said the project had "insidious" ties to organized crime and that top Emerald officials had lied to Gaming Board investigators. Emerald appealed to an administrative law judge and filed a lawsuit.

Gov. George Ryan has since replaced four of the five members who took that vote, and Acosta left the board last fall. When Parenti was appointed, he said he would take a "fresh look" at the Emerald case.

The Rev. Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, accused the board of making decisions in private and merely voting on them in public. He urged members to reject any deal that would let Emerald officials profit.

"Maybe you're all geared not to look at this as regulators but as businessmen or negotiators or lobbyists," Grey said. "This is not 'Let's Make a Deal.' "

Anita Bedell, executive director of the anti-gambling Illinois Church Action on Alcohol Problems, said it would "compromise the integrity of the board" if members allowed pressure from special interests to influence their votes.

After the meeting, Parenti said he believes that gambling in Illinois "should have a high degree of regulation."

"I'm going to regulate this industry like it's never been regulated," he said.