Cicero diner can keep video gaming license despite mob ties, ruling says, but agency will pursue revocation

Suburban businessman Jeffrey Bertucci was once part of a mobbed-up video gambling network, according to records that show:

• He allegedly paid out winnings from video gaming machines when it was illegal in Illinois to do so.
  
• And he didn’t come clean about this while angling later for permission from state regulators to legally operate the lucrative machines.

Still, an administrative law judge recently recommended that Bertucci’s Firebird Enterprises Inc. be able to keep a coveted video gaming license for his Steak N Egger franchise in Cicero — and that an Illinois Gaming Board effort to revoke that license should be dismissed.

Part of the administrative judge’s logic, as conveyed by gaming board officials at a meeting Thursday, appeared to rest on this argument: Had Bertucci come clean about about this in 2019 when he was approved for a license, he still would have gotten it.

Marcus Fruchter, the gaming board's administrator, disagreed, echoing what the agency asserted in its written complaint against Firebird: "Bertucci's background and associations would have disqualified him from licensure had he candidly advised the board of his criminal history."

On Thursday, Fruchter recommended — and the gaming board’s appointed members agreed — that the agency proceed with revoking the Firebird license since the administrative law judge's ruling isn't binding.

Now, Bertucci is likely to head to court to try to halt the order and reverse the revocation as part of an appeals process that could go on for many months. Meanwhile, his machines likely will remain in operation, bringing in cash.

Bertucci couldn’t be reached. His lawyer wouldn't comment.

The gaming board wouldn't identify the administrative law judge or provide a copy of the ruling. It cited confidentiality provisions that make the taxpayer agency, which answers to Gov. JB Pritzker, one of Illinois government's most secretive units.

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.

In 2021, the gaming board rejected an application by Chicago attorney and banker James J. Banks for a video gaming license, citing requirements including having “good character, honesty and integrity” and saying he “did not meet the requirements.”

Two years later, though, the agency reversed course, and approved the license.

In 2019, the gaming board moved to revoke Rick Heidner’s Gold Rush Amusements Inc. state license to operate over allegations of improper financial conduct but dropped that effort a year and a half later.