A complaint from the Illinois Gaming Board thrashing the Rivers Casino parent company for its lackadaisical control over gaming promotions and failing to follow internal procedures in the hiring of a security and maintenance vendor has led to the suspension of two of its officers, and a $2 million fine for Illinois’s largest and most popular casino.
The actions against the casino come after questions were raised in May by the Better Government Association and NBC5 Investigates into the company’s president Richard Simon’s past associations, and the relationship between the casino, its cleaning company United Maintenance, and parent company United Service Companies.
At issue is the Better Government Association’s question to casino management regarding the fact that another cleaning company previously organized by Simon in 2004, National Facilities Maintenance, with William Daddano Jr, who along with other family members was named by Attorney General Lisa Madigan as a supposed member of organized crime. Rivers immediately ended its relationship with United and self-reported to the Illinois Gaming Board after the questions emerged in May. The casino company’s president, David Patent said, “Out of an abundance of caution, we terminated our relationship with United, and since then we have been fully cooperating with the Illinois Gaming board in their investigation.”
Patent said that he was aware that the Gaming Board considered “reputation” when considering who should be employed by casinos as contractors. Illinois gaming laws specifically prohibit casinos and their operators from hiring anyone who is even suspected of organized crime ties. When Rivers Casino was being built Simons’ company held the security contract and after opening in 2011 assumed “deep cleaning” services at the casino.
The casino and its two suspended employees have 21 days to file a formal response to the complaint regarding procedural and contract issues surrounding United Service, and questions regarding promotional campaigns.