COLUMNIST: How casinos broke their promises to the struggling downtowns of Illinois
The Chicago TribuneBack in 1992, William Weidner, then president of Hollywood Casino of Aurora Inc., set out to Springfield to kill then-Mayor Rich...
The Chicago TribuneBack in 1992, William Weidner, then president of Hollywood Casino of Aurora Inc., set out to Springfield to kill then-Mayor Richard M. Daley's plans for a $2 billion mega-casino in downtown Chicago.Weidner and other members of what was known as the "riverboat alliance" were worried that any such facility in Chicago would suck away business from their nascent riverboat casinos in Aurora, Joliet, Elgin and other communities downstate. This was an act of self-interest. But that wasn't the language Weidner used.