by PolackTony » Fri May 02, 2025 8:36 am
Looks like every 20 years, D&P is going to prevent a Chicagoland casino from being built. Bally’s is under an obligation from the IGB to have this casino fully up and running by September of next year. Depending on how long this halt work order remains in effect now, that timeline could well wind up being infeasible now and the project DOA. I haven’t been in that area since the project began, so I don’t know how much progress has even been made on it to date.
Some of this stuff does start to get into ridiculous territory. Assuming that everything is on the up and up with contracting and that a company is actually rendering the contracted services, I personally don’t much care even if the company is connected (which I’ve never heard that the grandson even is). If they’re not breaking any laws, then it’s really no different than any other company.
But I’m not the IGB, whose whole rationale for existing is to root out even the merest whiff of mob influence in IL gaming. Looks like the issue here is that the IGB never was notified of or approved D&P as a vendor for the project, and only found out that someone there had subcontracted D&P after the Sun-Times dropped the dime on it. Unsurprisingly, the State is now shutting all work down until the State concludes an investigation of the vendors being used at the site and Bally’s can provide a revamped disclosure agreement for all contractors. Presumably, the IGB will not find any evidence of extant mob connections to D&P anyway, but again, if this process drags on, the casino could well wind up being DOA because of this.
Looks like every 20 years, D&P is going to prevent a Chicagoland casino from being built. Bally’s is under an obligation from the IGB to have this casino fully up and running by September of next year. Depending on how long this halt work order remains in effect now, that timeline could well wind up being infeasible now and the project DOA. I haven’t been in that area since the project began, so I don’t know how much progress has even been made on it to date.
Some of this stuff does start to get into ridiculous territory. Assuming that everything is on the up and up with contracting and that a company is actually rendering the contracted services, I personally don’t much care even if the company is connected (which I’ve never heard that the grandson even is). If they’re not breaking any laws, then it’s really no different than any other company.
But I’m not the IGB, whose whole rationale for existing is to root out even the merest whiff of mob influence in IL gaming. Looks like the issue here is that the IGB never was notified of or approved D&P as a vendor for the project, and only found out that someone there had subcontracted D&P after the Sun-Times dropped the dime on it. Unsurprisingly, the State is now shutting all work down until the State concludes an investigation of the vendors being used at the site and Bally’s can provide a revamped disclosure agreement for all contractors. Presumably, the IGB will not find any evidence of extant mob connections to D&P anyway, but again, if this process drags on, the casino could well wind up being DOA because of this.