A contractor hires a waste hauler with decades-old allegations of mob connections to work at the Bally’s Chicago casino construction site — and the Illinois Gaming Board apparently has no idea until asked about it by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Why is that, since the gaming board is the government agency tasked with regulating the casino industry across the state and ensuring the integrity of legal gambling here?
A measure of self-regulation — a reality for a slew of public agencies , from the Federal Aviation Administration to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency — appears to be the explanation.
“Unlike active casinos where gambling operations are occurring, there are no agents stationed at the construction site,” a gaming board spokeswoman said, referring to the site of the Bally’s permanent casino being built in River West where the Chicago Tribune used to have a printing plant.
“It is the casino’s responsibility to ensure vendors are disclosed to and approved by the IGB,” which is part of state government answerable to Gov. JB Pritzker.
Pritzker’s office didn’t want to weigh in on the issue, which involved dumpsters from D&P Construction Co., Inc., being used in the $1.7 billion Bally’s construction project.
Asked Friday whether oversight needs to change, the gaming board said: “The IGB took decisive and quick action when we learned about the present issues with an undisclosed and unapproved vendor at the construction site for Bally’s permanent Chicago casino. The IGB will continue to take decisive action during the pending investigation and once all the evidence and facts are known.”
The Sun-Times spotted the company’s brightly colored garbage bins on the site near the Chicago River and asked the gaming board why they were there given the firm’s history.
The agency ordered the construction to abruptly stop on the permanent site — a temporary Bally’s casino remains open in the Medinah Temple downtown — while officials investigate.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who inherited the project from his predecessor Lori Lightfoot, said he was “very much concerned about this project being interrupted” for the second time in about four months.
City officials halted Bally’s work for a few weeks in December after a demolition mishap dumped debris into the Chicago River.
“Whatever vetting process that was utilized that somehow allowed this type of discovery to escape, let’s just hope that it’s rectified,” Johnson said at an unrelated news conference Friday. “It becomes problematic when we slow down, stop, because of steps or measures that Bally’s, in and of itself, should have been a little bit more careful about.”
D&P was long linked to the late DiFronzo brothers, John and Peter, who the FBI identified as reputed leaders of the Chicago mob who secretly controlled the garbage company.
John DiFronzo was regarded as the reputed head of the mob at the time of his death in 2018, and he was implicated in the infamous Spilotro murders in 1986 though never charged with their deaths.
Peter DiFronzo, who had been the reputed head of one of the mob’s west suburban street crews, died in 2020. His widow used to be on the paperwork as running D&P.
The current D&P ownership structure is unclear. Reached by phone, a company official said, “I think it’s ridiculous” and hung up.
Under state regulations, gaming companies can lose their licenses or face heavy fines for “associating with, either socially or in business affairs, or employing persons of notorious or unsavory reputation or who have extensive police records, or who have failed to cooperate with any officially constituted investigatory or administrative body and would adversely affect public confidence and trust in gaming.”
The gaming board spokeswoman said: “IGB regulations require full disclosure and IGB prior approval for Bally’s Chicago Casino’s construction plans. The disclosure and prior approval requirements extend to all contractors and vendors (including subcontractors).”
“Previously, IGB staff made Bally’s Chicago Casino aware of these requirements, and that they are not to allow any vendors to perform work or services on either the temporary or permanent casino projects unless those vendors are first disclosed to and approved by the IGB.”
The gaming board didn’t provide a timeline on how long its investigation might take and how long the construction site will be shuttered. A reporter’s visit Friday showed no activity beyond a few workers coming and going through the security gate. The dumpsters that had been on site until Thursday were gone from their spot near a towering pile of rubble.
“We do not have a time estimate,” the gaming agency’s spokeswoman said. “A cessation in construction is necessary to determine the extent to which other undisclosed or unapproved vendors could be performing work on this project, and to investigate both the facts surrounding D&P Construction Co. Inc.’s (D&P) work and Bally’s Chicago Casino’s involvement in the failure to disclose D&P.”
Officials haven’t named the contractor that enlisted D&P. Bally’s representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment Friday.
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), a Bally’s critic dating to the company’s selection by Lightfoot, called for an audit of the company’s subcontractors to find out “who else is buried on their payroll.”
“The burden is on Bally’s to be self-policing as a responsible steward of this gaming license,” Reilly said. “It only raises concerns about what other rules they may be breaking and haven’t been caught on yet.”
