On the day in 1999 when Gov. George Ryan signed legislation allowing a casino in Rosemont, he took a less visible step that ultimately may have had greater impact on Illinois gambling.
Ryan appointed two new Illinois Gaming Board members, including Gregory C. Jones, a former assistant U.S. attorney considered by peers as a role model of the dogged prosecutor. He recommended another federal prosecutor, Sergio Acosta, to run the board’s day-to-day operations.
The board’s rejection Tuesday of plans for the Rosemont casino–a project heralded as a cash cow for its investors that would also boost state revenue by $100 million per year–is the most visible sign to date that a regulatory agency once considered too cozy with the gambling industry has taken a hard turn in the other direction.
The board rejected the wealthy and influential investor group that hoped to run the Emerald Casino in Rosemont, saying some investors had ties to organized crime and others had lied to board investigators during background checks.
In a state known for clout and corruption, few could have predicted the Gaming Board’s tough stand on the Rosemont casino. Though he once championed the deal, Ryan Wednesday gave the board’s members a vote of confidence, while not passing judgment on their specific charges.
“I think they’ve done the right thing,” Ryan said. “They’ve taken their time. They’ve studied the issues. If there’s anything that’s important, it’s that we keep that industry clean.”
Although House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) still spoke of Rosemont as a “good site for a casino,” Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale) said he doesn’t want the legislature to revisit the Rosemont casino issue.
“The board made up their mind,” Philip said. “That’s what we’ve got the board for. It’s not a legislative problem.”
That Illinois’ new gambling regulators would take on powerful casino owners wasn’t a surprise in law-enforcement circles.
Jones was appointed by Ryan to be chairman of the Gaming Board after Robert F. Vickrey resigned in January 2000. Jones is so highly regarded at the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago that there’s an award named after him to recognize prosecutors with “sterling integrity and good judgment.”
“The way people viewed Greg was he was the conscience and the voice of reason of the office,” former Assistant U.S. Atty. Andrea Zopp said.
Before Acosta accepted his job, he told state officials his work needed to be free of political influence, board sources said. In the mid-1980s, Acosta joined one of the tougher law-enforcement fights in the nation as a state prosecutor in Dade County, Fla. At the time, the cocaine trade was exploding into uncontrolled violence.
Gary Shapiro, the No. 2 man in the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, where Acosta worked from 1990 until joining the Gaming Board, described Acosta as a tough straight-shooter.
“He’s the kind of guy who can make very hard calls without fear of political influence,” he said. “That is a great thing for the state, particularly in an area that has historically been susceptible to the influence of organized crime.”
Acosta tapped a veteran organized crime fighter from Chicago’s FBI office to lead the Gaming Board’s investigative team. James W. Wagner had made a career of toppling mobsters and their associates, including Teamsters union boss Roy Williams, pension fund king Allen Dorfman and reputed syndicate bosses Joey “The Clown” Lombardo and Lenny Patrick.
Another board member who voted against the Emerald Casino project is Mac Ryder, a lawyer who once held the top job at the state Department of Children and Family Services, a position he took in 1993 as the agency was under fire from civil rights groups and the news media.
“It was kind of like getting drafted to be the captain of the Titantic,” said Dr. Ron Davidson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a DCFS consultant and trouble-shooter. He gave Ryder high marks, saying, “Whenever I brought a problem to him, he would get angry, and then he would get busy.”
Staci Yandle, a personal-injury lawyer who teaches law at St. Louis University School of Law, and Stuart Levine, a wealthy retired businessman and major Republican donor, also voted against the Emerald Casino.
Meanwhile, campaign-finance reports filed Wednesday show the Emerald Casino donated $15,000 two months ago to the committeeman’s fund of Rosemont Mayor Donald Stephens, who has close ties to several would-be casino owners.
Stephens, who has more than $780,000 in the fund, also reported receiving donations from former business partners Nicholas Boscarino, a proposed casino owner, and William Daddano Jr., who is listed by the Chicago Crime Commission as an associate of organized crime.
