Chicago casino settles lawsuit after being accused of barring White men from investing in the business
Bally's Chicago, which is projected to be Illinois' biggest casino with a 500-room hotel tower and 3,000-seat theater, was accused of excluding White males from its $250 million IPO as part of its Host Community Agreement with the City of Chicago.
The $1.7 billion casino and resort, set to open in 2026, faced a lawsuit launched by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on behalf of two White male investors and the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER).
Exclusive: Group Launches Tip Line For Dod Employees To Report Dei, 'Woke' Overreach
The casino committed to 25% minority and women ownership as part of the community agreement, which was drafted as part of a 2019 Illinois state law expanding gambling in the state. In order to take part in the IPO, an investor would have had to meet its "Class A Qualification Criteria," which stated that an investor must be a "minority or woman."
Bally's accepted deposits from 1,500 investors starting in December, but wound up refunding them in February because the SEC had yet to approve of the IPO, the Chicago Sun Times reported. In April, the casino dropped the controversial provisions from the IPO, but stated they preferred investors to be from the Chicago area.
Read On The Fox News App
JOHNSON & JOHNSON DENIES ENGAGING IN ILLEGAL DEI PRACTICES AFTER GROUP MAKES CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINT
WILL, which represented investors Richard Fisher and Phillip Aronoff in their case, alleged that Bally's was in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which bars racial discrimination in contracts, the first Ku Klux Klan Act and years of Supreme Court precedent. The conservative legal group is now celebrating the settlement with the casino.
"This is a great win for equality. Bally's Casino in Chicago, the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois had all agreed that they were going to open a new casino in Chicago and only allow minorities and women to own 25% of the casino as part of an investment. And Bally has now dropped that requirement. They filed papers with the SEC stating that the investment will now be open to everybody. And we think that's a great win for equality and we're very happy with this result," WILL's managing vice president Dan Lennington told Fox News Digital.
Patrick Callahan, 39, a Chicago attorney who had been prevented from investing in the casino, was pleased with the settlement, but voiced a note of caution about the future of his city.
"Under current state and local leadership, it's hard to be too optimistic that Chicago will suddenly become a bastion of nondiscrimination. That being said, this is a big victory and I'm hoping to see many more of them," Callahan said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Bally's, the Chicago mayor's office and the Illinois Gaming Commission for comment.Original article source: Chicago casino settles lawsuit after being accused of barring White men from investing in the business
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump announces 'massive' trade deal with Japan
President Donald Trump says the US has agreed to a "massive" trade deal with Japan, one of the country's largest trading partners. The plan would result in Japan investing $550bn (£407bn) in the US and paying a 15% tariff, Trump said in a post on social media. He added that Japan would open its economy to US goods, including cars, trucks, rice and certain agricultural products. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba welcomed the announcement, saying it was "the lowest figure to date among countries with trade surpluses with the US". "I just signed the largest trade deal in history, I think maybe the largest deal in history with Japan," Trump touted at a White House event on Tuesday evening. "They had their top people here, and we worked on it long and hard. And it's a great deal for everybody. I always say it has to be great for everybody. It's a great deal," he added. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Ishiba said the agreement would mean US tariffs on vehicles and parts would be cut to 15% from 25%. "We were the first in the world to reduce tariffs on cars and auto parts without any quantity restrictions," he said. "The agreement does not include any reduction of tariffs on the Japanese side," Ishiba added. The BBC has reached out to the White House and Japan's embassy in Washington for more details of the trade agreement. Bringing its main tariff rate down to 15% is Japan's "best compromise at this stage", Shigeto Nagai from research firm Oxford Economics told BBC News. The planned investment in the US by Japan included in the announcement "will be a huge boost to restore the US, fitting in with Trump's story of reviving US manufacturing with more jobs," he added. In a letter sent to Japan this month, Trump threatened a 25% tariff on the country's exports to the US if there wasn't a new trade deal struck before 1 August. That was one percentage point higher from the 24% rate announced during his so-called Liberation Day on 2 April. The April tariffs plan, which included duties on many US trading partners across the globe, were paused for 90 days following worldwide market turmoil. It allowed Tokyo's trade representatives time to negotiate with their counterparts in Washington. Japan's benchmark share index, the Nikkei 225, was more than 3% higher on Wednesday in Tokyo, with strong gains for shares in motor industry giants - including Toyota, Nissan and Honda. The apparent deal comes as Ishiba is under pressure to step down after his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost its majority in the country's upper house in elections over the weekend. The LDP had already lost its majority in Japan's more powerful lower house last year.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
The surprising details of fashion entrepreneur Christine Hunsicker's fraud indictment
Clothing tech entrepreneur and CaaStle founder Christine Hunsicker is out on $1 million bail after she was charged on six counts of cheating customers out of more than $300 million over the past six years in a complex fraud scheme that inlcuded wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, making false statements to a financial institution, and aggravated identity theft. Southwest Airlines' open seating is ending: Here's what the new 8-group boarding process will look like Here's exactly how much you'll save on your 2026 taxes, by income bracket: Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill benefits Why Third Amendment memes are suddenly taking over social media Hunsicker pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan federal court on Friday, after she turned herself in to authorities, and could face decades in prison if convicted, according to CNBC, who reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a related civil lawsuit. Here's what to know about the indictment. Why was Hunsicker indicted? Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who was working with the FBI, announced on Friday that Hunsicker is charged with forging documents, fabricating audits, and making material misrepresentations about her company's financial condition in an alleged scheme to defraud investors in her clothing technology companies CaaStle Inc. and P180. The documents allege she continued to solicit millions of dollars in investments for both companies and 'persisted in her scheme' even after law enforcement agents approached her about the fraud. 'The promise of pre-IPO technology companies can be fertile ground for fraudsters who play on investor euphoria,' Clayton said in a statement. According to the statement, the fashion tech entrepreneur and founder of CaaStle, a 'clothing-as-a-service' business that enabled clothing brands to rent inventory to consumers, promoted the company 'as a rapidly growing business valued at more than $1.4 billion, [although she] knew that CaaStle was in financial distress with limited cash and significant expenses.' To raise the capital for CaaStle's operations, she 'provided investors with falsified income statements, fake audited financial statements, fictitious bank records, and sham corporate documents that grossly overstated CaaStle's operating profit, revenue, and available cash.' Surprising details in Hunsicker's indictment The indictment alleges, among other things, that Hunsicker provided two fabricated audits to investors and conducted internet searches for the terms 'fraud,' 'created an audit firm fake,' and 'JP morgan 4m records faked,' an apparent reference to fraud charges related to JPMorgan Chase's acquisition of the college financial aid startup called Frank, which resulted in the federal prosecution of its founder Charlie Javice. (Javice was convicted in March of defrauding JPMorgan Chase of $175 million by exaggerating her customer base tenfold, according to National Public Radio.) It also accuses Hunsicker of fabricating the existence of CaaStle shareholders, falsely claiming that the shareholders needed money for a 'family health emergency' or due to the FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapse. She allegedly then used investors' money to raise new capital for CaaStle, while concealing that the company needed cash. And to 'maintain the fiction,' she issued fake capitalization tables to the investors in order to demonstrate that they had purchased existing CaaStle shares. According to the documents, Hunsicker's scheme also allegedly involved providing an investor with a fake screenshot of CaaStle's bank accounts showing nearly $200 million in available cash, although the company had less than $200,000 in available cash at the time, in or around September 2024. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
6 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Telix Shares Drop as SEC Probes Disclosures Tied to Prostate Cancer Drug Pipeline
Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. slumped as much as 16%, the most in 21 months, after the Australian developer of radioactive drugs said it received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission seeking information about disclosures related to its prostate cancer therapeutic candidates. The Melbourne-based company said it's cooperating with the SEC and is in the process of responding to the request, according to a statement Wednesday. The update came alongside Telix's second-quarter results, which showed a 63% jump in revenue, even as its top-selling product Illuccix faced ongoing price pressure.
