Chicago Sun-Times: Minority investors rip casino

A group of black, Hispanic and female investors that includes NFL legend Walter Payton's widow is claiming that Emerald Casino Inc. has so badly botched its effort to sell its dormant casino license that a judge should name a third party to get the job done.

"At the 11th hour and 59th minute, we need to stand up, make our voice heard and take control of this very convoluted quagmire," said Langdon D. Neal, a lawyer representing the group.

Connie Payton and 17 of her fellow minority investors in Emerald asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff on Monday to stop Emerald from controlling its license because the company's actions have harmed both the company's investors, creditors and state taxpayers, who have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in gambling taxes that the Emerald license should be producing.

"Let's move this thing along," Payton said. "A lot of people stand to benefit if we can't."

The matter will be before Wedoff Sept. 8. A lawyer for Emerald declined to comment.

Emerald appeared to be a lock to build a casino in Rosemont in 1999 after the General Assembly approved legislation that opened Cook County to casino gambling. That legislation included a provision that minorities and women make up 20 percent of the company's ownership.

The minorities and women who bought Emerald stock included Walter Payton, South Side auto-dealing magnate Al Johnson, prominent businessman Lester McKeever and Sandra Degnan, the wife of Mayor Daley ally Timothy Degnan. All told, the 18 clients Neal is representing invested $33 million with the company.

Chaz Ebert, the wife of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, and former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle also are minority investors in Emerald, but they are not being represented by Neal, according to court documents.

Investors: We were 'victimized'

Alleged wrongdoing by Emerald -- including organized crime links to two of the company's 60-plus shareholders -- abruptly sank the project in January 2001. Emerald's attempts since then to sell its license to another casino company that wants to build in Rosemont, Isle of Capri Casinos, also have failed.

Now, the situation has hit a tipping point, Neal said. Emerald has spent the summer fighting the state's effort to revoke its casino license, and it's become "painfully clear" that Emerald has little chance of winning, Neal said.

Connie Payton has insisted the the minority investors in Emerald have been victimized.

"We had no ties to Emerald and none to the village of Rosemont," she told state gambling regulators on July 26. "Our only goal was to obtain a position in an industry which, in Illinois, has excluded a minority presence."

Critics claim that the minority investors should be treated no differently than people who make bad investments in the stock market.