On the heels of a demand the Illinois Gaming Board pay him and his company $4 million, a video gambling executive associated with embattled Gold Rush Amusements further upped his legal fight with the state over what he has called a “smear campaign,” asking a Cook County judge to order the IGB to turn over documents and records he believes will shed light on how information about him and Gold Rush was leaked.
Rick Heidner and Hoffman Estates-based Gold Rush filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court on March 3.
They are represented by attorneys from the firms of King & Spalding and Taft Stettinius & Hollister, both in Chicago. The legal team includes Patrick M. Collins, now of King & Spalding, but formerly a federal prosecutor who helped lead Operation Safe Road and the prosecution of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan.
Rick Heidner
| Youtube screenshot
The complaint takes particular aim at the IGB’s actions in response to requests for information and records submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA.)
“In particular, the IGB has used FOIA as a sword to quickly disseminate harmful information about Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner, yet it hides behind the shield of extensions and thin assertions of exemptions when Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner seek legitimate information from the IGB via FOIA,” Heidner’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.
Heidner and Gold Rush have been in the public eye since at least last fall.
Gold Rush operates thousands of video gambling machines installed in hundreds of restaurants and other video gambling locations throughout Illinois.
However, the reputations of Heidner and his company have been stung in recent months, first by a report published by the Chicago Tribune asserting Heidner had done business with associates linked to the mob. Then, it was disclosed Heidner was named in a federal search warrant executed by the FBI during a raid of the office of former State Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat who earlier this year pleaded guilty to a bribery charge.
The IGB then moved in December to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Heidner and Gold Rush, ultimately seeking to revoke Gold Rush’s state gaming license.
Heidner has responded to the allegations by suing the IGB in the Illinois Court of Claims in early February, demanding $4 million from the body he accused of improperly leaking private information about him and his business to federal agencies.
In the new complaint, he asserts the IGB is now blocking his attempts to learn more about how information published by the Tribune moved from the agency to the news organization.
According to the complaint, Heidner and his lawyers have requested a range of records under FOIA, including phone records and other communications between the IGB and the Tribune concerning Gold Rush.
According to the complaint, the IGB had granted a FOIA request from the Tribune for the disciplinary complaint, even before it became public, in just about 30 minutes.
The complaint said this prompt reply came despite “IGB’s policy governing ‘Official Documents and Materials,’ which dictates that ‘information concerning investigations, procedures, or operations of the agency should not be discussed outside the agency…’” and which “further states, ‘Media inquiries should be referred to the Administrator or General Counsel.’”
According to the complaint, the IGB, by contrast, has slowwalked Gold Rush’s FOIA requests, or supplied incomplete responses, lacking key records concerning IGB communications with the Tribune and concerning the alleged IGB “data breach,” in which an IGB employee allegedly improperly supplied information on Illinois gaming licensees, including Heidner, to “three federal government entities.”
The complaint also accused the IGB of blocking Heidner’s attempts to secure information concerning the IGB’s treatment of a 2018 deal involving Gold Rush rival Midwest SRO LLC, and video gaming establishment owners Laredo Hospitality Ventures and Illinois Café and Service Company. The complaint said Gold Rush believed the deal “was structured to facilitate Midwest’s payment of millions of dollars to gaming establishment owners to become the terminal operator for their establishments.”
Heidner asserted the IGB’s handling of that transaction, “as contrasted with the IGB’s handling” of the disciplinary complaint against Gold Rush, “provides significant evidence of the IGB’s bias against Gold Rush and Mr. Heidner.”
The complaint asks the Cook County court to order the IGB to turn over the requested information, and pay civil penalties “for willfull, intentional and bad faith violations of FOIA.”