By: Mark Glennon*
It was bad enough that Bally’s, helped by the City of Chicago, attempted a public securities offering expressly prohibiting purchases by white males. The planned discrimination failed, as Bally’s has amended its offering to delete the prohibition, undoubtedly in response to lawsuits filed by me and two plaintiffs in a separate filing. That aspect of the matter is described in last week’s press release by Liberty Justice Center, which represented me.
What’s more nauseating is that the deal was offered as a special favor to ordinary savers who are minorities and women. For them, the offer to purchase is no favor. It’s garbage, in my view, and hyping it to disadvantaged minorities is exploitation, not favoritism.
How major law firms and a leading Chicago financial advisor could have put their names on the deal is beyond me.
By way of background, Bally’s is a major casino operator. The $250 million securities offering is by its subsidiary, Bally’s Chicago, Inc., to help finance a new gambling resort being built in Chicago’s River West neighborhood. The highly unusual share offering is rooted in a community development agreement with the City of Chicago and Bally’s. The amended filing for the public share offering is substantially identical to the initial filing but it deletes the discrimination and adds new language for “preferential allocations” to Chicago and Illinois residents.
Among the Chicago city officials who promoted the share offering was Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin and members of the Chicago Aldermanic Black Caucus. They hosted an information session at a church, of all places, in the 21st Ward, the city’s largest Black ward, to inform residents about an opportunity for minorities and women to “create generational wealth, as Conyears-Ervin put it, by buying shares in Bally’s Chicago, Inc.
You needn’t take my word for it that the shares are not suitable for investors of average means and experience. Among articles criticizing the deal are two good ones in The Triibe, a Chicago publication for blacks that’s usually friendly to affirmative action.
“I did the math; I wouldn’t buy Bally’s Chicago Casino,” is the headline on one of those articles. “After hearing about the investment opportunity, my immediate reaction was that it seemed like a predatory move targeting vulnerable, disadvantaged communities, masked as a pathway to generational wealth,” wrote the author later. A couple days ago, I finally decided to do the math to confirm my hypothesis — I was right,” she wrote.
That description couldn’t be better: “A predatory move targeting vulnerable, disadvantaged communities, masked as a pathway to generational wealth.”
Another Triibe article reported comments from other critics that included Damon Jones, associate professor and economist at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. “Jones advised against investing due to the high risks and the number of years it would take to make a return on investment,” the Triibe reported.
A more detailed critique of the offering is here from Bits About Money. We listed our problems with the deal in our earlier column here. Commenters on social media have also consistently ripped the deal.
Given my views about the deal, why would I have sued when I was barred, as a white male, from buying shares? Because I intended to match the purchase with a short sale of Bally’s parent stock. I did that and still hold that position.
The details on the math and reasoning for that would take some time to explain, but doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t recommend my approach to ordinary savers and I don’t here. I am not an investment advisor. The point, instead, is that the offering should have been limited to suitable investors who have experience with this sort of thing and can play with risky strategies.
Bally’s has in fact also filed to sell shares privately only to accredited investors, apparently as a supplement or back-up to the pending public offering. I don’t know the precise terms of that offering because I got no response when I emailed Loop Capital, which is handling that deal, for information on it over two weeks ago.
And now comes news, just last week, that Bally’s has halted construction of the casino over questions about a waste hauler that, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, is “dogged by mob allegations.” The Illinois Gaming Board issued an order to cease construction work on the Bally’s Chicago casino in connection with its pending investigation into the use of undisclosed and unapproved vendors at the construction site.
Construction may be halted but efforts to sell shares proceeds, subject to the Securities and Exchange Commission approving the new S-1 filing for the public offering.
How could so many lawyers who were involved with the initial offering have signed off on a deal so certain to draw obvious claims of race and gender discrimination?
And how could Loop Capital, a prominent, minority-owned financial firm, have put its name on an offering so unsuitable for retail, minority investors? Loop is serving as placement agent in the public offering.
I have no answers.
Maybe Chicago’s esteemed civic leaders can ask Loop’s founder, chairman and CEO about the deal at the award ceremony they are having for him next month. Yes, Jim Reynolds will be awarded for “outstanding civic contribution” by the Civic Federation on June 26.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Just look at what gambling did for Atlantic City , history repeats itself.
Once there are specific politicians promoting a plan to specific people, I wondered whether the politicians are registered in Illinois as financial advisors. As mentioned, law suits prevented the initially targeted investors from getting into a high risk investment that many would take a pass on.
In 1988, the Tribunes John McCaron authored a series dealing with the “Politics of Poverty.” He wrote of several Chicago alderpersons refusing federal monies to improve their wards. He contended that “keep poor people poor, they will always be beholding to you!” I personally believe that the Black community in Chicago today is no better off than they were 75 years ago.
The decline of the family in the Black community came after federal welfare programs.
In this linked post, you can see some interesting stats. I was aware of the comparable out-of-wedlock births in the black community 100 years ago. Interestingly in late 19th century Philly, former slaves did better than Blacks born freedmen. All very high marriage and dual-parent stats. The decline in marriage and present fathers is recent.
https://www.hoover.org/research/race-and-economics
In the year 2025, we can confidently say; they’re getting what they want.
McCaron is a good guy. One of the last of the thoughtful liberals. Also my neighbor, but I would say that even if I wasn’t living by him.
The Dems have been dealing them a bad hand since the Civil War. You’d think that they’d have caught on by now.
Awesome insight into Chicago’s-brand of hustle. But the real story should be how Chicago’s casino – to shore up Chicago’s nosediving Fire & Police pension funds – will prove to be too late to help the City avoid bankruptcy.
While the race-investor shenanigans are entertaining, the end result of Bally’s failed Chicago casino will be bad news for thousands of public safety retirees who will loose their retirement incomes.
Chicago’s pensions are a crisis in plain sight. When the Merc moved to the Board, in 2008, I had thought for sure that their floors would be turned into the long spoken of casino. All the infrastructure was in place for a turn-key casino. Unfortunately, the Chicago political class couldn’t stop arguing over who gets to steal first, and nothing was done. It’s too late now to pull Chicago out of its inevitable bankruptcy.
Although it was a shady deal, biased in favor of poc, let’s not relieve said people of responsibility in making the decision to invest, whether steered in the direction but crooked types such as Ervin and a storefront “ revrun “ or not. This sort of enabling, coddling supervision of grown adults isn’t productive and results in people that are dependent on others their entire lives.
“How could so many lawyers who were involved with the initial offering have signed off on a deal so certain to draw obvious claims of race and gender discrimination?” Why not? Did any of them face any punishment? Did Chicago get to virtue signal to their minority voters that they “tried to get them a seat at the table just like the bilionaires” but the judges wouldn’t allow it? I’m sure Bally’s knew this was a problem from the beginning but were told it was the cost of doing business in Chicago. Does anyone think the democrat voter base that… Read more »
‘How could so many lawyers who were involved with the initial offering have signed off on a deal so certain to draw obvious claims of race and gender discrimination?
And how could Loop Capital, a prominent, minority-owned financial firm, have put its name on an offering so unsuitable for retail, minority investors?’
In Chicago with the Democrats, it’s all about the hustle.
From filing racial discrimination cases to conviction expungement cases, ITLA and lawyers are the biggest “equity hustlers” and Chicago/CC/Illinois is one of their top markets$. CC is tops $ for conviction expungement cases. ITLA contributes almost 100% exclusively to dem machine$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
The cop & fire pensioners got to be steaming watching Brando administration turn Ballys into an equity bs free for all train wreak.
And congrats on winning lawsuit!!