Illinois attorney general against deal

Tammy Webber

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

CHICAGO -- Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, a Republican candidate for governor, said Monday that the state Gaming Board should not be negotiating the sale of a casino license in suburban Rosemont.

Published reports said Gaming Board administrator Philip Parenti had worked out a $615 million deal for Las Vegas-based MGM MIRAGE to take over the shuttered Emerald casino's defunct license, with the state receiving $160 million from the settlement.

But the Gaming Board -- which voted last year to reject Emerald's license, claiming the company had ties to organized crime and lied to investigators -- should instead proceed with its petition to deny the license, Ryan said.

If the allegations against Emerald are found to be true, "these people should not be enriched" by a sale, Ryan said, stressing that he was commenting as a candidate for governor, not as the state's attorney general.

"The process is now tainted," Ryan said. "I don't think (the board) should now enter a contract with MGM or anyone to sell."

Ryan would not say whether he would seek to block a potential sale. He said his duty as attorney general was to represent the state -- including the Gaming Board in a lawsuit filed by Emerald -- but has directed his staff to "look into what I can and can't do as attorney general."

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

On Monday, three top assistants to Ryan attended a 4-hour closed-door Gaming Board meeting during which Parenti gave members an in-depth report on litigation involving Emerald, Gaming Board spokesman Gene O'Shea said.

He would not say whether the reported deal was discussed, nor whether members discussed a federal grand jury subpoena issued to the board last Tuesday for all records of the proposed casino.

O'Shea has said the board would cooperate with the investigation.

Board Chairman Gregory C. Jones also declined to discuss Monday's meeting, and Ryan spokesman Dan Anders said the attorney general's office would not comment.

After the board rejected the license, Emerald appealed to an administrative law judge and filed a lawsuit.

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

The next public meeting is Feb. 26, but it has not been determined whether the Emerald issue will be on the agenda, O'Shea said.

A spokesman for state Sen. Patrick O'Malley, one of the attorney general's two opponents in the Republican primary, also said the state should not be negotiating a deal. A spokeswoman for Lt. Gov Corrine Wood, the third candidate, said the state should get the bulk of the settlement if the Emerald's license is sold.