{"id":122841,"date":"2019-12-23T12:26:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T20:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=122841"},"modified":"2019-12-23T12:30:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T20:30:39","slug":"illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/","title":{"rendered":"Embattled Illinois VGT King Rick Heidner Could Lose License over $5 Million ‘Illegal Inducement’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Illinois video-gaming terminal (VGT) operator whose bid to build a racino in South Chicago was scuttled in October by his connections to a Mafia-associated banking clan<\/a> is in danger of losing his gaming license over an unrelated incident.<\/p>\n

\"Rick
Despite being named in an FBI search warrant and having business links to a Mafia banking family, Rick Heidner had been accused of no wrongdoing — until the IGB complaint filed last week. (Image: Mitchell Armentrout\/Sun-Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rick Heidner, owner of Gold Rush Gaming<\/a>, has been accused by Illinois regulators of offering a $5 million \u201cillegal inducement\u201d to the owner of a chain of gaming parlors that had threatened to dump his machines for another supplier, The Chicago Tribune<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

According to Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) filings, Heidner\u2019s client, Laredo Hospitality Ventures, came under new ownership in November and quickly informed Heidner it would be removing his machines from 44 spots around the state.<\/p>\n

Heidner then met with new owner Daniel Fischer and offered to arrange a sale of the company for $5 million more than Fischer had just paid for it — a quick seven-figure return on investment. Fischer — who happens to be the lead investor in a proposal to build a casino in Rockford, Illinois — refused.<\/p>\n

It is illegal in Illinois for VGT operators to own the venues in which their machines are deployed. Meanwhile state gaming law prohibits them from offering anything \u201cof value to any licensed video gaming location or any agent or representative of any licensed video gaming location as an incentive or inducement to locate, keep or maintain video gaming terminals at the licensed video gaming location.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Smear Campaign\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But Heidner attorney Randall Samborn told The Chicago Tribune<\/em> last week his client had done nothing wrong and the allegations were part of an \u201corchestrated smear campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claimed that it was Heidner who had been the victim of an illegal inducement — paid to Laredo by an unnamed competitor to oust Gold Rush Gaming from its locations.<\/p>\n

Samborn said the purchase offer made to Laredo was \u201clegitimate\u201d and that Heidner would not have had \u201cany personal or financial interest in the proposed transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

But two days after the gaming board filed its complaint, the regulator demanded that Heidner fire his director of operations, Ronald Bolger, as well as sales agent Daniel J. Gerardi.<\/p>\n

\n

The board said that Bolger admitted he had \u201cprofessional and social associations\u201d that \u201cpose a threat to the integrity of video gaming and discredit or tend to discredit the gaming industry of the state of Illinois,\u201d during an interview about an unrelated matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Heidner has been in the public eye ever since his name appeared on an FBI search warrant in September that authorized a raid on the home and offices of State Senator Martin Sandoval.<\/p>\n

Heidner told the Tribune<\/em> he had \u201czero clue\u201d why the FBI would be interested in evidence of dealings between himself and Sandoval as part of an ongoing corruption probe.<\/p>\n

Licence Suspenzi<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But the raid prompted Tribune<\/em> reporters to do some digging. They unearthed close professional ties between Heidner and Rocco Suspenzi, chairman of the Parkway Bank and Trust.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Suspenzi was accused by the IGB of concealing his ownership interest in the now defunct Emerald Casino Project, along with the secret stakes of several mobbed-up partners. Suspenzi\u2019s bank also approved a seven-figure loan to one Mafia figure to finance his stake in the project.<\/p>\n

In September, the Illinois Racing Board granted Heidner a license to operate racing in Tinley Park, a major step in his mission to build a racino in the South Chicago suburb.<\/p>\n

But within days of the revelation of the Suspenzi connection, Governor Pritzker\u2019s administration canceled a deal to sell Heidner a state-owned plot of land earmarked for the development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Illinois video-gaming terminal (VGT) operator whose bid to build a racino in South Chicago was scuttled in October by his connections to a Mafia-associated banking clan is in danger of losing his gaming license over an unrelated incident. Rick Heidner, owner of Gold Rush Gaming, has been accused by Illinois regulators of offering a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":122843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIllinois VGT King Rick Heidner Could Lose License over $5M Inducement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gold Rush Gaming boss Rick Heidner accused by Illinois Gaming Board of offering Laredo Hospitality\u2019s Daniel Fischer \u2018illegal inducement.\u2019\" \/>\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\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Illinois VGT King Rick Heidner Could Lose License over $5M Inducement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gold Rush Gaming boss Rick Heidner accused by Illinois Gaming Board of offering Laredo Hospitality\u2019s Daniel Fischer \u2018illegal inducement.\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/\" \/>\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=\"2019-12-23T20:26:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-12-23T20:30:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Rick_Heidner.0-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\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\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/\",\"name\":\"Illinois VGT King Rick Heidner Could Lose License over $5M Inducement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Rick_Heidner.0-1.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-23T20:26:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-12-23T20:30:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Gold Rush Gaming boss Rick Heidner accused by Illinois Gaming Board of offering Laredo Hospitality\u2019s Daniel Fischer \u2018illegal inducement.\u2019\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/illinois-vgt-king-rick-heidner-could-lose-license-over-5m-inducement\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Rick_Heidner.0-1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Rick_Heidner.0-1.jpeg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Despite being named in an FBI search warrant and having business links to a Mafia banking family, Rick Heidner had been accused of no wrongdoing \u2013 until the IGB complaint filed last week. 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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. 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