Cicero diner can hold video gaming license regardless of mob ties, ruling says, however company will pursue revocation

Suburban businessman Jeffrey Bertucci was as soon as a part of a mobbed-up video playing community, in response to information that present:

• He allegedly paid out winnings from video gaming machines when it was unlawful in Illinois to take action.
• And he didn’t come clear about this whereas angling later for permission from state regulators to legally function the profitable machines.

Still, an administrative regulation choose not too long ago beneficial that Bertucci’s Firebird Enterprises Inc. be capable to hold a coveted video gaming license for his Steak N Egger franchise in Cicero — and that an Illinois Gaming Board effort to revoke that license needs to be dismissed.

Part of the executive choose’s logic, as conveyed by gaming board officers at a gathering Thursday, appeared to relaxation on this argument: Had Bertucci come clear about about this in 2019 when he was authorized for a license, he nonetheless would have gotten it.

Marcus Fruchter, the gaming board’s administrator, disagreed, echoing what the company asserted in its written criticism in opposition to Firebird: “Bertucci’s background and associations would have disqualified him from licensure had he candidly advised the board of his criminal history.”

Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

On Thursday, Fruchter beneficial — and the gaming board’s appointed members agreed — that the company proceed with revoking the Firebird license because the administrative regulation choose’s ruling isn’t binding.

Now, Bertucci is more likely to head to courtroom to attempt to halt the order and reverse the revocation as a part of an appeals course of that might go on for a lot of months. Meanwhile, his machines probably will stay in operation, bringing in money.

Bertucci couldn’t be reached. His lawyer wouldn’t remark.

The gaming board wouldn’t establish the executive regulation choose or present a duplicate of the ruling. It cited confidentiality provisions that make the taxpayer company, which solutions to Gov. JB Pritzker, one in all Illinois authorities’s most secretive models.

This case dates to 2023, when the Chicago Sun-Times reported:

• Bertucci admitted in federal court in 2010 that, prior to the legalization of video gambling, he’d obtained video gaming devices for his diner from an amusement company linked to James Marcello, one of the most-feared figures in the Chicago mob.
• Bertucci admitted during that trial that he’d gotten other gambling machines from another operator, Casey Szaflarski, who has been portrayed by federal authorities as the Chicago mob’s video poker king.
• When it awarded Bertucci a license in 2019, the gaming board knew he’d been arrested for illegal gambling payouts in another instance in Stickney, but officials say they hadn’t known of his other admissions at the mob trial.

The agency filed a complaint to yank Bertucci’s license not long after the Sun-Times story. One reason it gave: his lack of truthfulness.

Firebird appealed through an administrative process that lasted two years. Meanwhile, Bertucci’s license was active, and he was able to continue to operate and take in money from the Steak N Egger machines — more than $200,000 in “net terminal income,” records show.

One of the gaming board’s jobs is to keep out organized crime influences in legalized gambling. The agency once blocked a casino license from going to Rosemont because of concerns about possible mob influence.

Earlier this year, the agency temporarily halted construction of the permanent Bally’s Chicago casino in River West. But that was only after the Sun-Times reported a waste-hauler that has had reputed mob ties was being used on the site.