Today, Bally’s Corporation announced changes to the public offering for its Chicago casino project, eliminating race and gender-based requirements. This adjustment came as part of a response to the lawsuit, Glennon v. Johnson, filed by the Liberty Justice Center. Their lawsuit challenged the original public offering quotas based on race and gender, which were imposed by the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. These quotas set a requirement of 25% minority ownership, with "minority" defined as women or racial minorities.
The legal action, initiated on January 30, was directed at several parties, including Mayor Brandon Johnson, the City of Chicago, Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Irvin, Bally’s Chicago Operating Company, and members of the Illinois Gaming Board. The lawsuit supported Illinois resident Mark Glennon, who was excluded from the initial offering due to his race and gender not meeting specified criteria.
The Liberty Justice Center argued that these city requirements violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and federal anti-discrimination laws. Bally’s has now restructured its securities offering to allow broader investment opportunities, prioritizing residents of Chicago and Illinois without explicit race or gender distinctions.
Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim explained their stance to Crain’s Chicago Business, stating, “We want to make the offering go forward and do as we said we were going to do. We think this is a reasonable solution to get there.” He added, “We’re 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 changes in Bally’s IPO align with the concerns raised by the Liberty Justice Center. Reilly Stephens, Senior Counsel at the Center, commented, “No one should be excluded from participating in our economy on the basis of their race or sex.” Stephens expressed satisfaction that the new offering allows Chicagoans to invest without discrimination.
These revisions address the points made by the Liberty Justice Center, meeting the goal of removing discriminatory provisions from this public project. Going forward, the case will be formally dismissed, and advocacy for equal protection under the law will persist.