Attorneys who helped lead one of the legal actions challenging actions by casino operator Bally's and Chicago City Hall to allegedly illegally block out white investors from buying a stake in Bally's planned new Chicago casino have declared victory, after Bally's reportedly dropped limitations in its IPO, allegedly required by the city, to restrict the investment opportunity to black and other racial minority investors.
“No one should be excluded from participating in our economy on the basis of their race or sex” said Reilly Stephens, attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, a constitutional rights legal advocacy group.
“We are glad to see Bally’s new offering allows the people of Chicago to invest in one of the city’s premier projects without discrimination or exclusion.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
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On May 1, the Liberty Justice Center formally dismissed the lawsuit they filed on behalf of plaintiff Mark Glennon on Jan. 30.
Meanwhile, a similar lawsuit, brought by a different public advocacy group, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, remains pending, for now, according to court records.
The lawsuits were both filed in the closing days of January 2025, both accusing the city of Chicago and Bally's of essentially the same offense: Intentionally blocking white people from investing in the proposed new Chicago casino project.
The lawsuits specifically take aim at Bally's creation of a $250 million initial public offering (IPO) for its new Chicago casino operating company.
Bally's was selected by the city of Chicago to construct and operate the new casino in 2022. It would be the first to open within Chicago's city limits.
Under the proposal, the casino would cover 30 acres, including about 3,000 slot machines, 173 table games and VIP gaming areas, in addition to a 500-room hotel, 3,000-seat theater and six restaurants.
The total project has been estimated to cost more than $1.7 billion.
However, in selecting Bally's, Chicago City Hall required Bally's to agree to a so-called Host Community Agreement (HCA). Among other terms, the HCA imposed a series of racial and sex-based hiring and ownership quotas on the new Chicago casino operating company, in the name of promoting so-called equity and diversity.
The HCA required Bally's to agree to impose the quotas on every aspect of the project. This particularly included a requirement that the casino be 25% "minority owned," have a board that includes 40% "minorities," and employ a casino workforce that is at least 60% "minorities."
The HCA was signed in June 2022 under then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The agreement has remained in place under current Mayor Brandon Johnson.
According to the complaints, to meet the minority ownership goals, Bally's and Chicago City Hall restricted investment opportunities only to investors who could meet Chicago's "minority" classifications.
The lawsuits assert this resulted in the investment opportunity being illegally closed to white investors.
The city and Bally's each had moved to dismiss the legal challenges in federal court in April.
However, since then, Bally's leadership publicly announced their intent to revise the IPO to specifically drop the racial preferences.
In a report published by Crain's Chicago Business, Bally's Chairman Soohyung "Soo" Kim was quoted saying Bally's wanted "to make the offering go forward," and so the company would drop the racial preference requirement.
Kim reportedly said Bally's was "saying to the state of Illinois and Chicago (that) we understand what the policy goals were for these hard and fast (minority) rules, but we're going to drop that in our federal engagement, because it's not working."
The investment opportunities would instead be offered to the public on a race-neutral basis, the Liberty Justice Center in a release announcing the end of their lawsuit.
Under the new rules, Bally's now gives preference to residents of the city of Chicago and Illinois, but without any clear preference for particular races or genders.
"The revised IPO directly addresses the concerns brought to the forefront by the Liberty Justice Center in filing (Glennon's lawsuit) and is a win for equal opportunity in public offerings," the LJC said.
According to court records, the AAER's lawsuit remains pending, and the court continues to weigh motions to dismiss filed by the city and Bally's in that case.
For its part, the city has asserted it can't be sued over the alleged discriminatory rules in the HCA because the city claims the IPO was never ordered by the city.
The city acknowledged the HCA included rules requiring 25% "minority" ownership. But the city said Bally's chose on its own to use the IPO to comply with the racial ownership quota rules and not at the direction of the city, despite the requirements in the city's HCA.
Federal Magistrate Judge Jeffrey C. Cummings has not yet ruled on the motions to dismiss in the AAER lawsuit, but stayed further briefing on those motions following a hearing on May 6. The judge directed the parties to either file a stipulation to dismiss the case by May 20, or file a status report updating the court "regarding their efforts to resolve the matter."