Bally’s has settled a federal lawsuit brought by a conservative activist group on behalf of white men who previously were blocked from buying shares of the Chicago casino in favor of women and people of color.
Terms of the settlement, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, were not disclosed.
Bally’s already scrapped its minority investment requirement this spring in an attempt to revive the company’s initial public offering of $250 million in casino shares, an effort that is still pending approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company announced the initial public offering last winter, limited to investors who are women, Black, or from other groups considered “socially disadvantaged by having suffered racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias.”
Those were the terms of the host community agreement Bally’s signed with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office, which aimed to ensure a quarter of casino ownership stakes are held by people from diverse backgrounds.
But it prompted a lawsuit in January from the American Alliance for Equal Rights and white Texans Richard Fisher and Phillip Aronoff, who weren’t able to get in on the action “based on immutable characteristics,” they argued.
With the IPO stalled before the SEC — under a Trump administration that is systematically rooting out diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — Bally’s expanded the offering in April to people from all backgrounds “with a preference for residents of Chicago and other parts of Illinois.”
The company is still contractually required to meet the 25% minority ownership under its deal with the city, which was also named as a defendant in the suit, along with the Illinois Gaming Board.
Dan Lennington, deputy counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty that brought the suit, said in a statement that “Bally’s illegal and divisive investment plan is dead.
“From the beginning, this investment plan raised serious legal and ethical concerns and has since been abandoned,” Lennington said.
City and gaming board officials declined to comment. A Bally’s spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached.
In its updated preliminary prospectus, Bally’s warned it could “incur substantial costs defending these lawsuits.”
The stalled IPO is just one in a series of obstacles Bally’s has hit in the development of its $1.7 billion casino complex at 777 W. Chicago Ave., slated to open in September 2026.
The company had to remap its site plan when it found out the original design would have damaged city water mains, and later had to pause work after a demolition mishap sent debris into the Chicago River.
The project was temporarily halted again last month by regulators after the Sun-Times revealed a waste hauler once tied to organized crime was working at the site.
In the meantime, returns have been underwhelming at Bally’s temporary casino at the historic Medinah Temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave.
Bally’s casino shares “are highly risky and speculative” and “should be considered only by persons who can afford the loss of their entire investment,” the company has cautioned.