Gaming Board to hear Emerald settlement offer

Monday, June 24, 2002 | 11:06 a.m.

CHICAGO -- Emerald Casino Inc. would give up its gambling license -- with no profit for investors -- under a deal set to be presented publicly to the Illinois Gaming Board this week, a source familiar with the offer said.

The board scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday to hear details of the proposal.

The source said the settlement would let the Gaming Board choose the owner and site for the casino. Those conditions were included in a previous offer that also would have required the buyer to take on $100 million to $150 million of Emerald's liabilities.

The new offer decreases the liabilities and includes no profit for any Emerald investor, the source said.

Montgomery did say there was no buyer attached to the proposal. Las Vegas casino giant MGM MIRAGE had been negotiating to buy the license for $615 million but withdrew the offer earlier this month after state lawmakers voted to increase casino taxes to as high as 50 percent.

Attorney General Jim Ryan has said he can't conceive of any settlement he could approve. Although the Gaming Board does not need Ryan's permission to settle, he could block a settlement in court.

"The attorney general has not changed his position. He still believes that the (license) revocation hearing should go forward," Ryan spokeswoman Lori Bolas said.

Emerald's license has been in limbo since January 2001, when the board rejected the company's request to move from a shuttered site in East Dubuque to Rosemont, a Chicago suburb near O'Hare International Airport.

At the time, board members alleged that Emerald executives Donald Flynn and Kevin Flynn had lied to board investigators and that some investors had ties to organized crime.