{"id":121311,"date":"2019-12-02T14:36:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T22:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=121311"},"modified":"2019-12-02T15:03:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T23:03:59","slug":"plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois Would Need Amendment to Gaming Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Historic Illinois racetrack Balmoral Park could be raised from the dead if a developer\u2019s plans come to fruition.<\/p>\n

\"Balmoral
Racing could return to the century-old Balmoral Park racetrack \u2013 this time with added casino gaming \u2013 but the horse racing industry is cautious about the plan. (Image: Pinterest)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Chicago Sun Times<\/em> reports<\/a> that local businessman Philip Goldberg has purchased the racetrack from New York-based national event production company HITS Inc and wants to restore it to its former glory.<\/p>\n

HITS acquired the property at a bankruptcy auction in 2016 and uses it for showjumping events. Balmoral has not hosted racing since its previous owners filed for bankruptcy, having been sued for $82 million by a group of Illinois casinos.<\/p>\n

The group accused a Balmoral executive of agreeing to bribe former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to force the casinos to share revenues with the state horse racing industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most unique properties in Chicagoland, and it deserves to be put back into action,\u201d Goldberg told the Sun Times<\/em>. \u201cOur plans include making it a premier sports and entertainment venue that Chicagoland and the south suburbs deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Shroud of Secrecy\u2019 <\/strong><\/h2>\n

A massive gambling expansion bill<\/a> signed by current governor J.B. Pritzker allows for the state\u2019s three functioning racetracks to become full-fledged casinos, and for a new racino in Chicago\u2019s southern suburbs.<\/p>\n

But Balmoral is in Crete, Will County, which is not on the list of approved host communities. That means the law would need to be tweaked for Goldberg\u2019s plans to be realized.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D-Calumet City) believes it can be done and is throwing his weight behind the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the plan for Balmoral tied to whatever Chicago\u2019s going to do,\u201d Jones told the Sun Times.<\/em> \u201cEveryone wanted to make some changes to that casino bill. This bill we\u2019re asking for makes sense.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s already a track there. There\u2019s already room for a casino. This is going to transform the area if it\u2019s done right,\u201d said Jones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But not everyone is convinced.<\/p>\n

Illinois Harness Horsemen\u2019s Association executive director Tony Someone complained to the Sun Times<\/em> about a \u201cshroud of secrecy\u201d that he said was “concerning.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is Phil Goldberg?\u201d he asked. \u201dHe\u2019s not a racetrack person, not a gaming person. We\u2019d like to work together with this group, but we don\u2019t really know who we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tinley Park Plan Falls at First Fence<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A plan to revive defunct racetrack Tinley Park turned out to be a non-starter after the proposed developer, local video-gaming terminal operator Rick Heidner<\/a>, was linked to a banking family that has allegedly had financial involvement with Mob figures, according to a Chicago Tribune<\/em> investigation.<\/p>\n

The Tribune<\/em> was inspired to start digging when Heidner\u2019s name — among others — turned up on an FBI search warrant related to a corruption investigation into State Senator Martin Sandoval.<\/p>\n

Heidner has not been accused of doing anything wrong. But the Priztker administration wasn’t taking any chances and refused to sell him the plot of state-owned land earmarked for the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historic Illinois racetrack Balmoral Park could be raised from the dead if a developer\u2019s plans come to fruition. The Chicago Sun Times reports that local businessman Philip Goldberg has purchased the racetrack from New York-based national event production company HITS Inc and wants to restore it to its former glory. HITS acquired the property at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":121313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,14577],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Balmoral Park could be revived as part of a plan by local property developer Philip Goldberg, but an Illinois\u2019 gaming act would need to be amended.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Plan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Balmoral Park could be revived as part of a plan by local property developer Philip Goldberg, but an Illinois\u2019 gaming act would need to be amended.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-02T22:36:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-12-02T23:03:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/balmoral.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/\",\"name\":\"Plan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/balmoral.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-02T22:36:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-12-02T23:03:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Balmoral Park could be revived as part of a plan by local property developer Philip Goldberg, but an Illinois\u2019 gaming act would need to be amended.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/balmoral.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/balmoral.jpg\",\"width\":1960,\"height\":1400,\"caption\":\"Racing could return to the century-old Balmoral Park racetrack \u2013 this time with added casino gaming \u2013 but the horse racing industry is cautious about the plan. (Image: Pinterest)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Horse Racing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/horse-racing\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Plan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois Would Need Amendment to Gaming Law\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Plan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois","description":"Balmoral Park could be revived as part of a plan by local property developer Philip Goldberg, but an Illinois\u2019 gaming act would need to be amended.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Plan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois","og_description":"Balmoral Park could be revived as part of a plan by local property developer Philip Goldberg, but an Illinois\u2019 gaming act would need to be amended.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-12-02T22:36:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-12-02T23:03:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1960,"height":1400,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/balmoral.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/","name":"Plan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/balmoral.jpg","datePublished":"2019-12-02T22:36:24+00:00","dateModified":"2019-12-02T23:03:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Balmoral Park could be revived as part of a plan by local property developer Philip Goldberg, but an Illinois\u2019 gaming act would need to be amended.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/balmoral.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/balmoral.jpg","width":1960,"height":1400,"caption":"Racing could return to the century-old Balmoral Park racetrack \u2013 this time with added casino gaming \u2013 but the horse racing industry is cautious about the plan. (Image: Pinterest)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/plan-to-resurrect-balmoral-park-racetrack-in-illinois\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Horse Racing","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/horse-racing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Plan to Resurrect Balmoral Park Racetrack in Illinois Would Need Amendment to Gaming Law"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}